Inhuman Connection
by amyownfie
Summary: Both Skye and Kate were changed when they went through the mist, and after being driven away, they have to find a way to control their powers and keep from exposing who they are to the rest of the world. Possibly with the help of some other super powered individuals.
1. Chapter 1

**AN- So this is my new story. I started writing and I couldn't stop and then it turned into this. Hopefully it will make more sense as we go along but for now I like it being slightly cryptic and confusing. And although I am writing in third person, we will only learn what things are as Kate learns them because it gives me room to change my mind in the middle of it.**

 **Please enjoy this story and please review with any suggestions or ideas.**

It had been almost a year since SHIELD fell, Hydra was on the rise and nobody could tell which was which. Many agents had gone into the private sector or gone dark, whichever was the easiest to do. As for Specialist Agent Kate Reid, she went beyond dark. She moved every few days, pulled a couple of illegal jobs when she was short for cash and stayed invisible. At least as invisible as she could be.

One night, after a rather successful bank job, Kate returned to her van, stashing the money and driving as far ash she could from the city, driving to her weapons store. When she reached it, she changed out of her old SHIELD tac gear and pulled on a tank top and shorts. She jumped into the back of the van, proceeding to delete any evidence of what she had done.

Afterward she ran a scan, so see if anyone was following her. It had become a routine by now; she was never being followed and could quickly move on. But this time it was different. The alarms to the facility rang, notifying her that someone was trying to get through the door to her safe house (which could only be described as a cave that she modified a few years before SHIELD's fall. Kate moved quickly, grabbing all of the money and weapons and placing them in the shielded compartment of a less than inconspicuous vehicle. After picking up the bag with her gear in it and her laptop, she opened the back door, which led to a long tunnel system, and drove through as quickly as she could. Once she was out of the caves she hit the fail safe and brought the mountain down on whoever was coming after her.

Kate hadn't gotten a hundred feet before a man, covered in what looked to be scales, placed his hands on the hood of the car, stopping it in its tracks. Kate blinked, forcing the stars that she was seeing from her eyes. She could feel that she cracked at least two ribs and that she wasn't getting out of this one alive. The man pulled off the car door and carefully pulled Kate out.

"Can you just kill me already?" Kate asked, clinging to her side in pain.

"We have different plans for you." The man spoke before smashing what appeared to be a blue crystal.

Kate felt a thick cocoon growing around her body, trapping her where she was. She started to panic as the cocoon grew across her face, blocking off her airways. A heat seared through Kate's body, which quickly expelled outwards, forcing the cocoon to shatter into small smoldering pieces on the ground. The man who had pulled Kate out of the car lay on the ground, fire encasing his body. She didn't look back before taking her bag, as much of the money as she could fit amongst her clothing and several weapons and headed back toward the road.

She managed to reach a roadside diner within a few hours, which she was extremely glad was there, and soon had one of her old SHIELD contacts on the way to get her out of the country. While she waited, she sat, eating what could barely be classed as eggs, searching through the information she had gathered about the man that had attacked her and the crystal that he had. She'd found nothing, according to everything she had, it was a myth at best.

A woman sat in the chair across from her raising an eyebrow. "From bank heists to pleas for help." The woman commented, waiting for an explanation. "Why did it take you so long to call? I was getting a little worried."

"I didn't have the cleanest record before I joined SHIELD, I couldn't join the private sector like you did." Kate shrugged, looking up at the woman before her. "You recruited me after all Melinda."

"That I did." She nodded, handing Kate a set of keys. "The car you asked for is waiting outside, but I would like it if you came back with me. I have a group of people all trying to make sense of what happened last year, trying to protect people from Hydra. You should join us."

"I used to work for Hydra." Kate frowned, scared of admitting what she was going to have to say. "Before SHIELD took me in I did dozens of jobs for them. Of course I didn't know it was Hydra until I did some digging. I'm also the reason they killed Fury. I was the one who told him about the Lemurian Star and that digging got him killed. Trust me; your team is better off if I disappear." Kate picked up her things and headed out to the car only to see a dead man stood next to it.

"Kate, nice to see you're alive." The man smiled, walking over to her.

"Phil." She whispered, pulling the man into an embrace. "You're dead."

"I was dead. But that's a story for another time." Phil smiled, walking over to the car with Kate. "If you would put your blindfold on and allow me to drive we'll reach our base within the hour." Phil didn't give her another choice, but got into the front seat and waited for her to get into the car before driving.

Kate rolled her eyes but pulled on the blindfold, trusting that Phil knew what he was doing.

When the car finally stopped, Kate got out of the car, with Phil's help, and through a door into what she sensed was a large room. It was almost like she could feel the air around her, telling her that there was a plane at the far left of the area and that there were at least twelve people moving through the space.

Phil removed the mask and from Kate's first look at the space she seemed to be right about it. There were also a multitude of cars and two quinjets. It was almost a shock to know that she was right, and also a shock that she knew it in the first place.

"We're first going to take you to see Agent Koenig; we need to know if we can trust you." Phil explained, escorting her through the halls to a large room with what looked like a torture chair in the middle.

"My name is Billy Koenig." A short man smiled, sticking out his hand for Kate to shake. "We're going to be asking you a few questions while you are linked up to Fury's best lie detector. It measures galvanic skin response, oxygen consumption, micro expressions, biofeedback, brainwaves, pupil dilation, voice biometrics. In total there are ninety-six ways for this thing to tell me if you're lying."

Kate smiled shyly before sitting in the chair and allowing Billy to attach all of the cables to her.

"Director Coulson, Agent May, I would ask that you leave the room until the end of the test." Billy smiled, opening the door.

"Director." Kate smiled, laughing slightly. "You'll have to tell me about that one later." She winked to Coulson who simply waved and followed Melinda out of the room.

"Only if you pass." Billy reprimanded, closing the door on May and Coulson.

"Even if I don't, this is a story that I have to hear." Kate smiled before taking a deep breath.

"Let's start with a baseline." Billy smiled, tapping on several screens. "Can I have your full name?"

"Katherine Olivia Reid, but I changed it to Kate when I joined SHIELD." She answered, keeping a straight face.

"Eye colour?"

"One's blue, one's red." Kate answered, getting a raised eyebrow from Koenig. "I wear contacts." She smiled, removing the lens with her one free hand, quickly placing it back in.

"Have you ever been married?"

"No." Kate hesitated to answer the next part. "But I have been engaged. He was another specialist, it didn't end well. I haven't seen him for almost two years."

"What was his name?" Billy asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Grant Ward." She replied, noting the stony look that momentarily flashed through Billy's expression. "Is there something I should be worried about?" She asked.

"I think some of the other agents would be better explaining it to you." He answered; his voice stoic. "Please list your immediate family."

"My mom, two brothers and a step-father."

"What about your biological father?" Koenig pushed, needing a heightened response for the machine.

"He left me and my mother, took all of our money and tried to burn down the house while we were in it." Kate gritted her teeth. "I was seven, my brothers were only four."

"Would you say that was your defining moment?"

"Yes. One of many." Kate answered, biting her tongue in an attempt to calm herself down.

"What is the difference between a rock and an egg?"

"One can carry life, the other one supports it."

"Very poetic." Billy smiled, glancing up from his sheet of questions. "Have you ever heard of Project Insight?"

"Yes."

"Would you care to expand?"

"It was mentioned in a document I intercepted between some old friends of mine. It was because of that Fury got killed, I put him on the trail of Hydra." Kate explained, looking down at the floor.

"Have you had any contact with Alexander Pierce?" Billy narrowed his eyes at Kate again, unsure if he would like her answer.

"Yes." Kate immediately started explaining. "After Agent May finished my training I was called to his office. Until the fall of SHIELD I would frequently be sent on missions off book by both Alexander Pierce and Director Fury. Missions that they knew they couldn't send Barton or Romanoff on. I was the more expendable version of them."

"Did you ever aid in any Hydra operations during that time?" Billy asked, glancing down at the revolver under the desk.

"I don't know." Kate tried to think back to all of the missions she carried out. "Probably, but not knowingly. I did a lot of things for that man that were never mentioned outside of his office so for all I know I was a Hydra puppet. I did before though, with the red room. I'm sure you know about it after Agent Romanoff."

"At least you're not lying about that." Billy sighed, still tensed. "You wash up on a desert island. On the sand is a box, what is in that box?"

"Swiss army knife. Can't beat a classic." Kate shrugged, amused by Billy's reaction to her answer.

"SHIELD is gone. It has been for a while. Why reach out to your former SO now?" Billy asked, looking Kate directly in the eye. "You've spent a year hiding, why choose to show yourself now?"

"Because I was attacked by a gifted individual." Kate explained, recounting to Billy what happened in the desert. "He was strong, covered in scales and shattered some creepy looking crystal that evaporated into smoke. I was scared, for the first time in years I was scared. I reached out to the woman who taught me how to control that fear. I felt like I needed that again."

"Congratulations Agent Reid." Billy smiled, satisfied with her answers. "Here is your lanyard. We'll need to take you down to medical for an evaluation but other than that everything should be fine." Billy smiled, handing her a lanyard and walking out of the door with her. Kate knew something was wrong, but she followed the man anyway.

When they reached what appeared to be a makeshift lab Kate immediately noticed another agent sealed in a glass room. That was when she saw the look in the woman's eyes. This agent had gone through the same thing she had, but whether the rest of the agents knew that was a mystery.

"Please take a blood sample from Agent Reid and place her in quarantine." Billy asked a large built man.

Kate didn't argue, she simply followed the agent to the glass room and allowed herself to be locked inside with the very on edge agent.

"I'm Kate." She smiled, sitting down next to the woman. "Just got here."

"I'm Skye." The woman smiled shyly. "I'm fairly new. Got my SHIELD badge the day SHIELD fell. Thought it was pretty poetic."

"In what way?" Kate asked intrigued.

"I spent years of my life trying to take down SHIELD because the only file I had on my real parents was redacted by them. And the day that I joined the people that helped me, the day that I joined officially, was the day that I got it all taken away." Skye frowned, biting her thumbnail. "What's your story?" She asked changing the subject. "How did you end up getting recruited by Coulson?"

"I was recruited by Agent May actually." Kate smiled, deciding not to mention the sudden deflection Skye used. "It was just before she left the field. The day she and Agent Coulson went on the mission to Bahrain was my first mission as a SHIELD agent. I was seventeen, naïve, very unprepared for how different SHIELD would be to my past.

"I spent my adolescence training, stealing, killing anyone who got in my way. Similar to Agent Romanoff. I was seventeen when I was made a SHIELD agent, I'd already done a lot of bad things and Agent May showed me how to get past that. After that I did a lot of private missions for Fury and the World Council. I went dark after the whole Hydra thing." Kate stopped her story there, wanting to tell Skye about what had happened in the desert when there were less people around. It didn't take long though, soon most of the lab had cleared out and it was just them and another scientist.

"Why are you in quarantine?" Skye asked, having sensed that Kate was holding something back.

"For the same reason you are." Kate watched Skye's expression flash with panic. "But I don't think the circumstances were the same. For me I was attacked in the middle of the desert by some lizard guy and he shattered a crystal. After that I was surrounded in some sort of cocoon and just after I stopped breathing it broke apart, completely surrounded by flame." Kate remembered the sight around her, the man that she left burning to death. "Now that I think about it I had two cracked ribs before that and now I'm fine."

"You're right. Mine was very different." Skye began to describe the temple, and how Raina managed to coax her down. "She had this obelisk and when she let go of it, it landed on this plinth and the casing disappeared to reveal these crystals. This smoke filled the room and the cocoon started to grow across myself and Raina. Tripp kicked it, hoping that if he broke it, whatever was happening would stop. In stead he just turned to stone in front of me. When the cocoon broke, I knew it was me that did it. I caused this earthquake that broke it open, but it also shattered Tripp's body." Skye was talking at a million miles an hour, as if she was scared that someone might overhear. "I haven't told any of my team about that. They'll freak out when they hear about it."

"Most likely." Kate agreed. "Are you scared? Of what you can do?"

"Of course I am." Skye whispered. "I'm terrified."

"I am too." Kate admitted. "That's why I called Agent May. She was the closest thing I had to a mother after I was recruited by Hydra's red room division. She still is."

Before either of them could say any more, the scientist in the room ran over to the door, his tablet beeping.

"Skye." He whispered, visibly shaking. "You're blood results. They came back… different." He opened the door and showed Skye the image. "What happened down there?" He whispered.

Kate noticed Skye start to shake, as did some of the objects around them, and pulled the scientist back.

"Skye, your heart rate was way higher than it is scientifically possible." He continued, having apparently not noticed. "It was inhuman."

The shaking suddenly intensified and the large light in the corner of the room shattered as Skye grabbed onto her head. She wasn't just shaking now, tears were streaming down her face and the look in her eyes was one of terror.

"Oh my god. Skye." The scientist whispered, walking back over to her.

Kate immediately began cleaning up the glass, cutting her hand in the process. After picking up the last of the glass and placing it in a bowl in the lab, she looked down at her hand to see the cut was completely gone. She rubbed it slightly, wiping away the blood that was still there, frantically searching for where she had been injured.

"Fitz, we can't tell anyone." Skye begged, still shaking. "They can't know, especially not Simmons. You heard how she was talking about Raina."

"Okay." Fitz fumbled with the tablet for a few seconds. "I can change the lab results, make them say that everything is normal."

"No you can't." Kate interjected. "They're running my blood too. And you don't exactly have an old sample to swap it with. They're going to start asking the wrong questions and then it will come back to you when they realize that the crystals were the same."

"She's right." Skye sighed, finally starting to calm down. "We have to tell Coulson. Everything."

"But Jemma…" Fitz started.

"You can handle Jemma." Skye smiled, it was clearly fake. "Now, please. Go get Coulson and May."

"Are you going to be okay?" Kate asked Skye once Fits left the lab.

"I'd better be." Skye sighed before sitting back on the bed, biting her thumbnail.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN- So I changed this chapter about five times over when I was writing it because I didn't know how much of Kate's past I wanted to write about and how much of Skye's past I wanted to write about but this is what I ended up with and I hope you like where I went with it. As you know I teased Kate's powers and I have added what I think is a huge twist. Some of you might have seen it coming, some of you might not. But let's just enjoy the story and enjoy the drama.**

Kate stood, watching Skye panic as she spoke to Coulson; the scientist Skye had called Fitz biting his nails as he watched the scene.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Coulson asked, slightly hurt that she didn't trust him enough to tell him.

"You heard Simmons." Skye explained, raising her voice slightly. "She wants to kill anyone like me, like us." Skye glanced over at Kate, knowing that they would both be in danger. "I didn't want anything to break up the team."

"It wouldn't." Coulson frowned, reaching out to place a hand on Skye's arm.

Skye pulled away from his touch, crossing her arms. "Yes, it would."

That was when Simmons ran into the lab. "Sir, Skye shouldn't be out of quarantine. Her blood was affected, we need to try to find a cure incase she turns into something like Raina."

"I already have." Skye choked, before running out of the room, Kate following close behind.

"I need to get out of here." Skye breathed, trying to contain the tremor that was vibrating through the facility.

"Let's go. I've got my car in the hangar, no one's touched it." Kate offered. Skye immediately led her to the hangar, getting into the car. Kate jumped into the driver's seat and sped out of the facility, following the major roads, hoping they would lead out of whatever town or city they were in.

"We're in Tuscon." Skye spoke quickly, pointing out the road to the highway. "Head up there, we'll head toward Canada."

"You want to try and cross the border." Kate asked, slightly shocked. "I know somewhere else we can go. Somewhere I don't think Coulson would follow." Kate continued on her current course, getting ready to head onto the interstate. "New York. As far as the Avengers know, Coulson is dead. I don't think he would risk them finding out. Especially because of how pissed they would be."

"New York it is." Skye agreed. "That's like a two day drive."

"Thirty six hours." Kate corrected. "But if we're careful so that they can't follow us it will be three days, at least."

"I'd better get some sleep then." Skye shrugged, sinking into the chair. "Wake me up when you want to sleep."

"You're surprisingly trusting for a SHIELD agent." Kate remarked, glancing over at Skye.

"I just have this feeling that I can trust you." Skye shrugged. "Besides, we're both in the same amount of danger; it's safer if we stick together." Skye closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

"I guess it is." Kate mumbled, focusing on the road ahead of her.

After several hours Kate pulled into a gas station, filling up the tank and buying some food and water. She was more than happy to see Coulson hadn't touched her bag because she felt the need to change her clothes, and Skye probably did too. She pushed changing to the bottom of her list and continued driving for another few hours until she pulled over and swapped with Skye.

Skye and Kate drove like this for ten hours before the sun went down and it became harder to stay focused on the road in front of them. They pulled into a motel, quickly paying for the room before pulling the car into the lot.

"I'll keep watch." Kate offered, pulling her bags out of the compartment in the back of her car. She noted Skye's raised eyebrow when she saw the bag full of cash, but Skye didn't say anything and led Kate to the room.

"How'd you get the cash?" Skye asked once they were in the room. Skye seemed like she already knew the answer, she just wanted Kate to admit it.

"Heists. Many." Kate spoke quickly. "After SHIELD fell I didn't have the advantage of being with a team. I was deep under cover and having the entirety of my aliases published online made it hard for me to move around. I went underground, lived on the wrong side of the law for a long time before I called May for help. Most SHIELD agents turned that way; we're criminals so why not act like it."

"I'm not judging you. I was part of the rising tide; we actively tried to destroy SHIELD." Skye shrugged, fully understanding why she did what she did. "It's exactly like you said; I had a team and some help from Fur… some old SHIELD agents. It was easy."

Kate ignored her slip, fairly sure she knew what Skye was going to say. "Let's get some sleep. We have plenty of time to talk before we get to New York."

That was exactly what both Kate and Skye did. Skye wasn't sure about what she was going to do, if she could trust the former agent. They barely knew each other. But she could handle herself, and let herself fall into a deep dreamless sleep.

Kate opened her eyes. She wasn't in the motel any more, she was in a large white room, tied to a table. She pulled at the straps, praying that they would come loose. But they wouldn't budge. She looked around to see another person tied to a table, a man. Tall, dark haired, still unconscious. Kate looked closer, it was Grant Ward. "Grant." Kate called, trying to wake him up. "Grant."

"Kate?" Grant turned his head to look at her, blood running from a cut on his forehead. "Where are we?"

"I don't know." Kate admitted, fear starting to creep up on her. "All I know is that we probably won't make it out of this alive." Kate couldn't look at his face any more, too scared of what might happen to him.

"Hey." He whispered, his voice more tender than before. "I love you."

Kate laughed, more of a cry than a laugh, and looked over at Grant. "I love you too."

A large door flung open, several armed men walked in, their weapons aimed. When they stopped walking a man in a white lab coat walked to the foot of the tables they were tied to.

"You should be privileged that we selected you for this experiment." The man spoke in a thick German accent. He pulled out a long knife, rolling it over in his hands. "I've wanted to do this for a very long time and now I finally have the chance to put my hypothesis to the test." He smiled menacingly, slowly walking in between the tables until he was close enough to bend down by Kate's head. "You should never have betrayed us Katherine. I will take great pleasure in this."

"Don't touch her." Grant yelled, fighting against the restraints.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll have your share too." The scientist smiled, taking a few steps further down the table. He plunged the knife into Kate's leg, driving it into the bone underneath.

Kate let out a scream, unprepared for the pain that she was hit with. The scientist twisted the knife, making Kate's scream louder.

"Grant." Kate screamed, sitting upright in a dark cold room. She looked around to see the interior of the motel room she was staying in. She felt a hand on her arm and immediately grabbed it, flipping the person onto their back. "Skye." Kate breathed, letting go of her arm. "Sorry." She shook her head slightly, trying to clear the fogginess from her mind.

"It's okay." Skye shrugged, getting up. "You didn't really hurt me." Skye sat on the end of the bed, looking into Kate's eyes. "You were having a nightmare, you were shouting a name."

"I'd rather not talk about it." Kate snapped, sliding back until she was leaning against the wall. "It was something that happened a long time ago."

"I don't want to push but… the name you said." Skye hesitated, almost certain about the name she had heard. "You were dreaming about Agent Ward."

"Yes I was." Kate breathed, wishing that Skye didn't have so many questions. "It was a mission a few years before Hydra fell. We got caught. I don't really like to talk about what happened."

"That's not my question." Skye admitted, looking down at her hands. "How did you know him?"

"We met when I joined SHIELD." Kate started, thinking back to the first time they met. "I was seventeen, he was eighteen. I'd been recruited by Romanoff and he had been recruited by Garrett the year before. We didn't spend as much time at the academy as other agents, or at least I didn't. I'd been trained by the red room; that was how I got into this business. Romanoff found me going after the same target she was and she convinced me to go with her." Kate remembered the encounter like it was yesterday, the woman had a knife to her throat but she didn't take the chance. She'd let Kate go, and it was something Kate would always be thankful for. "I spent six months at the academy, mostly in private training sessions with Agents May or Romanoff. A few weeks in, there was someone else in the gym for a session. It was Agent Ward. We got to know each other but then we were assigned to different continents and that was the end of it. Or at least I thought it was.

"A few years back we were assigned to the same base in Europe. He was following a lead connected to another one of his missions and it led him to Italy. He didn't speak Italian but I did so I was assigned to help him get the artifact he'd been tracking. After that mission, things got intimate and six months later we were engaged." Kate took a deep breath, having reached the point in their story she wished she could forget about. "The last time I worked with him, we were in Russia. It was a routine job, go in, get the information, and get out. But we got caught and Fury had to pull a lot of strings to get us out. During the medical exam I found out that I was pregnant but I'd already lost the baby. Being in that place had taken its toll and I lost the child I didn't know I was going to have. That was when they found out about us and separated us. I was sent to Australia and Grant stayed in Europe, kept tracking the sellers of alien objects. We broke things off and last time I heard he was reassigned to a mobile command unit. Level seven, top secret, need to know basis only and I didn't need to know." Kate was trying not to cry, she hadn't thought about what happened for years. She didn't want to mourn the loss of a child she never got to know.

"Kate." Skye whispered, noticing the pain that the story had caused. Before Skye could say anything else she noticed that she could see her breath. Ice was forming across the bed, floor and walls, spreading out from where Kate was sitting. "Are you doing this?" Skye asked, pulling Kate from the image she was seeing.

Kate looked around, noticing the same thing Skye saw. "I think I am, but I thought I used fire. That was how I got out of the cocoon." Kate thought about pulling all of the ice back in and it collecting in her hand. She started to feel it, like another part of her body. She focused, pulling it in like she pictured. When she opened her eyes she saw that the ice was now in a small crystal clear ball in her hands. "This is amazing." Kate smiled; overwhelmed by everything that she was feeling.

Skye looked almost jealous, Kate's gift wasn't destructive, it was beautiful. All Skye could do was kill and destroy while the woman next to her could do truly amazing things.

That was when the ice shattered, sending shards flying in all directions. One of the shards hit Skye in the chest, sliding between her ribs. Skye immediately lost consciousness, falling from where she was sat to the floor. Kate sealed the wound with her ice and quickly typed in a phone number she hoped she wouldn't have to use into the phone.

"What happened?" The person on the other end asked, knowing that the number was only to be used in emergencies by one person.

"I don't know how to explain it." Kate started, trying her hardest not to panic. "The girl I'm with has been stabbed in the chest. Or at least that's the closest I can describe it. I can keep her alive for five hours, how quickly can you get here. We're in Tulsa Oklahoma."

"She'll be with help in three hours. I'll be there with a plane in twenty." The person on the other end spoke quickly, her change in breathing letting Kate know that she was running. "Keep doing whatever you are doing, hopefully she'll be okay."

Kate hung up the phone and let herself lose control. With a loud shout, thunder clapped and a flash of lightning struck the ground in the parking lot. A large storm had built up and Kate tried her hardest to make it dissipate, thankfully succeeding without disrupting the weather patterns in the area.

And so she sat, keeping Skye as cold as possible, keeping the blood running around Skye's body for as long as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN- I really struggled writing this chapter. I couldn't decide who's POV to write from or how long I was going to make it but I eventually decided on this and I feel pretty good about it. I hope you like it and please do leave me any suggestions about where you think this story could go and don't hesitate to tell me if I made a mistake.**

 **Enjoy!**

Time passed painfully slowly while Kate was waiting for backup. It was like she had to count every heartbeat to make sure tat they were in time. She couldn't bear it if Skye died because of her.

After what seemed like an eternity, a quinjet landed in the parking lot and two familiar figures pushed a gurney down the ramp. Kate picked up Skye and carried her to the gurney, meeting them half way.

"What happened to her?" Natasha asked astonished as Kate laid Skye on the gurney and started pushing it back to the plane. "You didn't say much over the phone." She quickly secured the gurney and moved to the pilot seat, preparing to take off.

"It was my fault." Kate hesitated, trying to think of the best way to explain it. "Yesterday, I was attacked. The person who attacked me was gifted, but he was never on the index. This person smashed a crystal and it became vapor. After a few seconds, I was covered in this cocoon and when it broke, I split it apart and it was smoldering on the ground around me." Kate kept her eyes trained on her feet, terrified of how her old friends would react to her having powers. "Nothing else had happened since. I was fairly calm; I didn't pay any attention to what happened in the desert until I met Skye."

"What do you mean 'until you met Skye'?" Clint asked, having stayed silent. Only checking his arrows and quiver during her story.

"I mean, I heard that she had gone through a similar thing." Kate began to explain. "She was in this alien city, a quarter of a mile underneath San Juan. She was following someone down there and one of her team was with her. They entered this room and they were shut in. The woman she was following was holding a device and when she placed it on this plinth it opened and had the same crystals inside. She was changed too. She can manipulate vibrations, earthquakes." Kate quickly moved on from Skye's transformation, knowing that it wasn't as important as the story she was about to tell them. "We weren't in the safest place, or with the safest company, so we left. I was having a nightmare about Grant, she woke me and asked me about who he was. I found out he'd been on her team before SHIELD fell and I wanted to know why the mention of his name turned everyone frosty, not literally.

"When I asked her and told her who Ward was, and our history, she told me that he was Hydra. He worked for a man that had her shot, twice, point blank in the stomach. And he did a lot of terrible things to her team and his own family." Kate quickly started to panic when she saw a thick layer of frost spreading through the quinjet. "Oh god, it's happening again." Kate started to panic even more when she couldn't stop it, or get rid of it.

"Kate, I need you to stop whatever it is you're doing." Natasha yelled from the cockpit. "The cold is messing with the avionics, I'm flying blind."

"I can't." Kate muttered, huddling closer in to herself. "I can't, I can't." She kept repeating, tears streaming down her cheeks and freezing to her face.

Natasha nodded at Clint. He quickly grabbed a sedative and injected Kate with a small dose, hoping that it would calm her down. He had given her more than he realized because Kate quickly lost consciousness, the ice starting to melt away.

…

When Skye woke up she noticed that she wasn't in the motel anymore, the memory of what happened flooding back. She started to panic, not because she had been hit, but because she didn't know if she was there to be experimented on. The bed she was on started to shake, quickly followed by the rest of the room.

A man in a lab coat rushed to her side holding a syringe. "Skye, don't panic. You're safe." He reassured, reaching for a tube linked to her arm. "I'm going to administer a light sedative that will help calm you down, and then we can explain what is happening." Skye didn't know the man but she let him and the shaking stopped, a million questions now popping into her head. How did he know that she was causing the shaking? How did he know what to do?

"Who are you?" She asked, promptly kicking herself for how stupid she sounded. "Where's Kate?"

"Kate's fine, she's in another room." The man reassured with a warm smile on his face. "Her powers are going crazy and it almost made you worse. We'd just operated and didn't want to risk your recovery." He scribbled on a clipboard, looking intently at all of the monitors around the bed. "I'm Doctor Bruce Banner. I'm no medical doctor but I know enough to keep an eye on you until Doctor Cho is done attending to Kate's wounds."

"Is she badly hurt?" Skye asked quickly, barely registering the name that he man just used.

"No, just a few cuts and bruises. I'm amazed that she doesn't have any burns or more serious injuries given the erratic nature of her powers." Bruce rambled, finishing up his notes. "How are you feeling? You were hurt pretty bad; you shouldn't even be awake yet."

"I'm fine." Skye smiled. "I've had worse injuries. Since the procedure I've been a pretty fast healer."

"Two bullets to the stomach if I'm not mistaken." Bruce saw Skye's shock and quickly explained. "I saw the scars, I know what trauma like that looks like. You should be good as new; we used a relatively new piece of tech on you that causes your body to regenerate and repair damaged tissue at an elevated rate. It repairs your body almost instantly."

"Thank you." Skye smiled, sitting up. "I feel pretty good minus the sedative. How long until that wares off?"

"Just another minute. Two at the most." Bruce shrugged, taking a seat at the end of the bed. "We want to help you learn how your powers work, help you learn to control them."

"Why?" Skye asked curious, still oblivious to who she was speaking with.

"You are in Avengers Tower; we like to consider ourselves experienced when it comes to powers." Bruce smiled, unready for the shock that would hit Skye.

"Crap, you're Bruce Banner." Skye exclaimed in shock, awestruck by the man sat in front of her. "You have a crazy…"

"I'd prefer it if you wouldn't use the term crazy." Bryce cut in.

"I was going to say a crazy amount of self control." Skye corrected, smiling slightly.

"Ah." Bruce nodded, standing up. "Want to come see Kate?" He offered, opening the door.

"Sure." Skye nodded, standing up from the bed. The IV in her wrist tugged and Bruce quickly removed it, placing a band aid over the small hole in her wrist.

When they left the room they only had to ascend one flight of stairs to reach what looked like a shielded room. Inside a Chinese woman was hovering over a large device that was repairing Kate's wounds. The closer Skye got to the window, the more she noticed the frost that had covered Kate's hands and spread up her arms, stretching up her neck and up one side of her face.

"When she told me about her transformation, she said her powers might be fire." Skye muttered to herself, trying to understand what she was seeing.

Bruce heard what she said and chuckled slightly. "They are. She appears to have control over the elements, though that is only a guess. I've seen her use water, ice, fire and air. She can probably do a million and one things with her abilities and I bet that she's more powerful than everyone we've ever seen combined."

"That's a lot of power." Skye commented, looking through the window.

"Yes it is." Bruce agreed, both of them watching as Doctor Cho disabled the machine and helped Kate up. That was when Kate noticed two people looking at her through the glass. She quickly thanked and embraced Doctor Cho before running out of the room.

Kate pulled Skye into a hug, more than glad that Skye was awake. Skye shivered in Kate's arms, her tough freezing cold. "Has your power been out of control since the motel?" Skye asked; glad to see that Kate was perfectly fine.

"Yeah, it's been two days and I'm still struggling." Kate admitted, letting go of Skye. "You seem okay though."

"Yeah, tell that to the earthquake a few minutes ago." A voice chimed in behind them. Skye turned to see a man walking over from the computer he had been working at. "How's the ice queen doing?" The man asked, obviously having made fun of Kate before.

"You could just call be by my name." Kate sighed before answering the question. "I'm fine. Still trying to get my powers under control but I've got most of it down. The ice is a bit of a problem."

"Good to know." The man smiled. "But I need something to call you since you don't like Ice Queen or Elsa."

"How about Kate? I have to go get May and Morse off our tail. He followed us and has been hovering around New York looking for any sign of us." She smiled, winking before walking away from them.

"I'll come with you." Skye offered, before Bruce grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks.

"Don't." Bruce warned Skye. "She practically ordered you to stay here until you are better, and just because you're walking around doesn't mean you're better. You can still feel a pain in your chest right?"

"Yeah." Skye told him, even though she knew that he wouldn't let her help if she admitted the pain she was in.

"That's because the shard hit your left lung." Bruce informed her, letting go of her arm. "Even with the repair work it will still take a week or two for your lungs to get back to normal."

"Great." Skye rolled her eyes before standing in the lab space awkwardly looking around.

"I'm Tony Stark, by the way." Tony smiled, trying to get Skye's attention.

"I'm Skye." She smiled awkwardly, sticking her hand out for him to shake. "So this is Avengers Tower. It's cool to see it in person, much cooler than hacking in to monitor you for Coul… my boss."

"Two questions." Tony stated, very alarmed. "Who's your boss and why did he want you to monitor us? How did you even hack in? I have the best firewalls in the country."

"That was three questions." Skye pointed out, trying to avoid the first question. "I used to work for SHIELD as a consultant before it fell. My team, some other SHIELD agents and some outside help joined together to rebuild SHIELD, the right way, the way Fury wanted it to be. The new Director wanted to make sure that nobody was hurt too badly and to see if Hydra had done anything to the system. They're an old friend of yours."

"Coming back to that later," Tony started "how the hell did you get in? Nobody has ever made it past the first firewall without JARVIS alerting me and shutting them down."

"I've hacked in a few times." Skye admitted. "Before SHIELD picked me up I was part of the Rising Tide. We wrote a programme that would work like a Trojan horse, a very undetectable Trojan horse with a very complicated set of hacks programmed in. The Trojan could be tied to a million and one different things; an email, a picture, a text, and it would automatically transmit any information back to the source and create a direct link that would let the user break in effortlessly after the initial hack had been set in place. To make sure that the Rising Tide wouldn't ditch me I programmed it so that only the computer that initialized the hack could receive the signal, and I made it so that no one could detect the signal, or hack into it if they managed to get my laptop."

Bruce looked very impressed and Tony looked very wounded. "You did it from a laptop?" He whined, shocked by Skye's skill level.

"Yep." Skye smiled, very amused by Tony's reaction. "I can remove it, and help fix up the security. They might have set up another one since I left, it has been a while."

"Sure, what do you need?" Tony asked, walking with her over to the main computer in the lab.

"Somewhere to work and an hour tops." Skye shrugged, ignoring Tony's jealous look. She typed for a few seconds pulling up an old email with a news report attached.

"That email was from Rhodey's account." Tony commented when he saw what was on the screen. "Did you hack the US government just to hack my system?"

"No, I'd done this to about fifteen other people in important positions, that's how I got most of the information for the rising tide." Skye told him, breaking down the email and removing the Trojan horse. She continued typing for another twenty minutes, with the help of JARVIS where it would speed things up, before she finished boosting the security and setting up a system scan to find any other hacks left behind. "I'm done with the security, now I'm just waiting for the scan to finish. Anything that is even slightly out of the ordinary will be fed to the secondary screen where I can look through it myself and see what's going on."

"How long is that going to take?" Tony asked, knowing that it wasn't an easy thing.

"It depends how much information the system flags. It could be done in five minutes or five days." Skye shrugged again, wheeling a chair over. "There isn't an easy way to do this thoroughly."

And so Tony left Skye alone, five hours later she informed him that she was done, having removed and traced three Trojans, shutting down all electrical devices connected to them, most of them still being active. "Your system's clean and JARVIS should now be able to find out if someone tries it again."

"Thanks." Tony smiled, taking a mental note to see exactly what she did to the system. "Can I ask about your powers?" He noticed Skye's expression didn't change and so he asked anyway. "Do you know how to control it? Because you had some pretty bad fractures in the bones on your forearms when Kate, Nat and Clint brought you in. Helen and Bruce think that it was caused by directing your powers inward, instead of controlling them and trying to understand them you were trying to suppress it and hide it and that caused your bones to fracture."

"Yeah, I guess I was." Skye muttered, trying to wrap her head around what he was saying. Even when she thought she had control, she really wasn't.

"Sorry to interrupt." Bruce smiled at the two, having rushed over when he noticed that Skye was done. "But I have a theory about Kate's powers. At first I was thinking of the conventional for elements; earth, air, fire and water, but some of the things she's been doing with her powers don't add up. The ice that she is controlling, while it could just be the conventional water, she used it, and air, to create a thunderstorm, something that I don't think would have happened if she had used the conventional for elements."

"She's using the eight elements." Skye spoke, agreeing with Bruce. When she saw Tony's confused expression, she expanded. "In most entertainment and media we look at the elements as four components that work together to create balance. It's mostly just in MMOs and RPGs, but there the idea of there being eight elements, each of which has a pair within that system that it balances. Ice and Fire, Earth and Wind, Energy and Water and Light and Dark. It's more likely that she is accessing those eight elements; each probably has a different trigger, for lack of a better word. How she feels or how she thinks affects the way that her power is channeled and each of those eight elements is accessed by her different emotions."

"If she could learn to control her powers then she would be able to access all of them regardless of how she was feeling." Bruce interjected, trying to understand exactly how her power works. "Right now, it's all impulsive. She isn't choosing to use her powers; they are at the point where they are so erratic that the excess energy inside of her from the transformation is being vented through the direct use of her powers. I'd guess that you're experiencing the same thing Skye; your powers are harder to control when you are under emotional stress. Your powers seem to work much differently to Kate's so I would guess that your powers are tied no negative and destructive emotions, given its nature."

"So we try to figure out how the elements are tied to her emotions." Tony suggested, pulling a tablet from his back pocket.

"She was scared and so she used ice. When she was surrounded by the cocoon she used fire, my guess would be that she wasn't scared then but trying to fight it, that surge of distress was physically translated into fire. I don't know how to explain the thunderstorm because that would be a combination of the different elements, mostly energy and wind, and I'm only theorizing at the minute so I don; have an explanation for how that translated through her powers."

"I'd say it's pretty accurate." Kate interjected, stood only a few feet away. "I got back when you were still talking about Skye, didn't want to interrupt."

"I have been wondering though," Skye started, remembering some of her missions before Hydra "why all of the elements? It could be because this was in our genetics but I have only ever seen people with one. Fire, Ice and Darkness. I haven't come across anyone who had multiple powers. Not even Captain America. He wasn't given super human strength and speed as powers; he was injected with a serum that physically enhanced him."

"I don't know." Kate shrugged. "But we do have a problem. May and Morse were sent here after us, but they said they know Ward is somewhere around here, and there's something else about it that you should know."

"What?" Skye asked, trying to keep the hurt from her face. She still wasn't over what Ward had done, what he had lied about.

"Apparently he got away by blocking them off with a metal girder, using his mind." Kate informed Skye, knowing that his may not end well for them. "You said that he was Hydra, but I don't think he was that loyal to their cause. If he was then he would be with a team of Agents tracking us down but he's on his own, apparently running from them. I think we should help him."

"Can we trust him?" Tony asked, deciding to ignore the expression on both Skye and Kate's faces.

"I honestly don't know." Kate admitted. "But I think I might be able to get through to him, keep him from trying to kill us all."

"How?" Tony laughed. "From the sounds of it this guy is a big deal, not just because he had crazy powers."

"We were engaged." Kate admitted, moving toward the elevator. "And you forget, I have powers too. Skye if you want to come May is shadowing him and Morse is downstairs. They gave me their word that they wouldn't try to force us to go back. I've worked with both of them, hell May was my SO, hopefully that means that they weren't lying to us."

"Okay, let's go." Skye walked over to the elevator with Kate and they made their way down to the bottom floor.

 **AN- So I hope you like the little twist of Ward having powers now. Since the episode he kidnapped Skye I have been really pissed off with his character, I hated him and now I want to redeem him. Whether he ends up with Kate or not I haven't decided yet, but I would love to hear your opinion. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it (when I finally got over the block)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN- This chapter is a bit different to the last few chapters. I think I may be painting Grant as better than he is but I love Ward's character so much I couldn't help myself.**

 **I hope you like this one!**

When Skye saw Bobbi she tensed, not knowing how she would react. Skye didn't know Bobbi that well, and now Skye realized that it was a bad thing to have shut herself off from the woman.

"Agent Reid, Skye, it's good to see you both." Bobbi smiled, and it even seemed genuine. "May's tracked him to an abandoned warehouse less than a mile away. As far as we can tell he has an M1911 with very few bullets left, no more than two mags at most, it shouldn't be too hard to force him to burn through those. Coulson wants this clean and fast, we can't cover this up like we would have been able to. But he thinks Ward might come quietly if you two are here, then we'll be able to get him back to base and figure things out from there." She briefed them once they had piled into her SUV.

"No." Kate spoke, without explaining herself. Bobbi glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow. "When we get Ward he's coming back to the tower with us. He has powers and even through he's done a lot of bad things, I guarantee you I've done worse. I want to help him, not just with his power but with accepting the things that he did. He doesn't sound evil to me, just lost and broken. Let me fix him."

"And if you can't?" Bobbi asked, pulling up outside of the building.

"Then I'll shoot him." Kate shrugged, taking one of the ICERs and spare ammo from a case in the backseat. She also handed one to Skye, the two knowing that they shouldn't hesitate to use their powers if it comes to it. "Let me go in first, it may throw him off, give the rest of you enough time to tag him."

"Comms." Bobbi handed each of the agents an ear piece before moving toward the already open door of the building.

Kate moved in first, keeping her gun aimed high. After a quick sweep of the immediate vicinity she saw that it was clear, and May was crouched behind a crate. She moved over to her former SO, crouching down beside her. "Me and Skye are going to go in first, you and Bobbi try to find a way around the side or back, anywhere that he can't see you coming."

"What are you going to do?" May asked, not sure if she could trust her former rookie.

"I'm going to talk to Ward." With that, Kate moved through the space, Skye following close behind. As Kate had guessed, it didn't take Ward long to approach them, given that he previously had feelings for the two of them. Skye hung back, hoping that Kate would be enough to bring him in, she didn't look forward to their reunion considering last time he saw her she shot him four times.

"Kate." He whispered, immediately lowering his gun and pulling her into his arms. "I'm so glad you're alive. But you can't be here, I'm not the same person I used to be." Ward pushed her away, backing up.

"I know, Skye told me." Kate informed him, lowering her gun. "But I don't believe that's you. You are the man that I fell in love with, the man that I agreed to marry. No matter what you think you've done, you're still that person."

"No I'm not." Ward choked, trying to hold back tears. "Something happened to me, something changed me. I'm not human any more, if I ever was."

"I know that too." Kate sighed, holding her hand out. "Take my hand, I want to show you something."

"Kate…" He started.

"Just do it." Kate smiled, closing the gap between them. He cautiously took her hand, unsure if it was a ruse. That was when Kate created her frost, spreading it up both of their arms. "That's just a small part of what I can do. I changed too, pretty recently actually. But that doesn't mean I'm not the same person."

Ward simply looked at his hand in shock, still unsure of what to do.

"Come back with me." Kate started. Ward jerked his hand out of hers, the frost instantly disappearing. "I'm not going to take you back to Coulson, I want you to come with me to the tower. The avengers are helping me learn how to control these powers, and I think they can help you too. You're a good man, Grant Ward, no matter what you've done. Because I can guarantee you I've done worse."

Ward took a deep breath, considering her offer. He noticed movement in the shadows behind her and raised his gun, aiming just past her shoulder.

"I'm not threatening you." Kate started raising her hands.

"And I'm not aiming at you." Ward, pulled her behind him. "Are they with you?" He asked, falling back into his old SHIELD habits.

"No, that's someone from your old team." Kate shook her head, placing a hand on Grant's arm. "Don't shoot her, she won't shoot you."

"The last time we met would say otherwise." Skye stepped out from her hiding spot, keeping her gun raised at Ward. "Nice to see you survived four bullets to the stomach." She smiled sarcastically.

"Bullet proof vest." He shrugged, tightening the grip on his gun. "Agent 33 helped me out. Just after we made it back to the states we were attacked. This guy shattered a crystal and it killed her, turned her to stone. And I was just stood there, this thick tar covering my body. I was stuck there for what felt like forever before it started to crack. When I broke free, she was just frozen there, looking out at me. That was a reminder that I don't deserve anything good for what I did to you, what I did to all of you. And even though you hadn't listened to me before, I chased Fitzsimmons into that medical pod so that I wouldn't have to kill them like Garrett wanted. I knew they would find a way out, and because we were so close to the water I hoped, no I prayed, that they would float. I never wanted to hurt any of you, least of all you Skye."

"Save it for when we get back." Skye grunted, lowering her gun.

Ward too lowered his weapon, curious about Skye's sudden change. This might not end well for him, or them, but he didn't know what they were going to do to him.

'Cuff him and bring him in, Agent Reid. Nice ruse.' May ordered over the coms, moving toward Kate's position.

"I can't do that Agent May, I made a promise a long time ago, and I need to keep it." Kate replied, pulling Ward along behind her as she ran through the warehouse, hoping to make it to the entrance before May did. But she was too late; May was stood firing ICER rounds at the two of them, while Skye stayed back, unsure of who to side with on this one. Kate took a deep breath, raised her hand and pushed some of the energy from her body. She was shocked to see a blast of light hit May, knocking her unconscious.

'Agent Reid, what the hell are you doing?' Coulson shouted through the coms. 'He is a high risk target and you cannot let him get away. Turn him in or I will be forced to brand both of you as terrorists and have the full force of the US government after your heads.'

"No you won't Coulson; you know that I can help him." Kate disagreed, moving over to check that May was okay. "Trust me."

'Okay.' Coulson said after a few seconds of deliberation. 'But the second he slips back I'm coming after you both.'

Kate sighed a breath of relief, because Coulson had agreed with her and because May was okay. She would be unconscious for a few seconds. "We can go, they won't stop us." Kate glanced at Bobbi, who was on the walkway on the far side of the warehouse, before leaving the room.

…

"Who's the friend?" Tony asked when they arrived back at the tower. "You two have a floor each so he can stay with one of you or I can get him a room."

"He'll be staying with me." Kate spoke, ignoring the look from Skye. Skye knew that they had been an item but also she knew that Ward would take advantage of that. "Which floor are we on?" Kate asked, wanting to have a private conversation with Grant.

"You're on the sixtieth, Skye's on the floor above you." Tony informed them. "Dinner's at seven if you feel up to it, Pepper's ordering Chinese."

"Thanks." Kate smiled before walking back into the elevator. "Floor sixty please JARVIS." She asked, confusing both Grant and Skye.

"Of course, Miss Reid." JARVIS replied, the elevator starting to move. "Do you require anything else?" The AI asked when they reached her floor.

"Could you turn off any audio recording?" Kate asked, looking around the large space. There was a lounge area in the middle, a kitchen on the left side and two rooms lining the right wall. There was an office area that looked out of the window on the far side of the room. Everything was white and blue, minus the various plants and paintings in the room.

"Very well, Miss Reid." JARVIS spoke before leaving the three of them in silence.

"Skye, you don't have to sit through this conversation yet." Kate informed her. "You haven't healed properly yet." Kate knew that Skye would understand that she meant emotionally as well as physically.

Skye contemplated the offer, knowing that she had to talk to Grant about what happened at some point. "I'll stay if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't." Kate smiled before heading over to the sofas. She and Skye sat next to each other and Grant moved a chair to sit opposite them. "I don't know exactly what happened, just the basics that Bobbi told me, but I know that there's some stuff that you and Skye need to work out. And some stuff that I have questions about."

"What do you want to know?" Grant asked, taking a deep breath.

"Were you always Hydra? When we were together?" Kate asked, unsure of how she would handle his answer, unsure of whether she wanted to know the answer.

"Yes I was. I joined Hydra when Garrett recruited me. I owed him so much and joining Hydra with him was what he wanted me to do." He started to explain, noticing the pain in Kate's eyes. "I didn't, I still don't, believe in anything they stand for. What they do is wrong, for us Hydra was a means to an end, at least that's what I believed. SHIELD became my home, and I regret betraying that."

"I'll let you and Skye talk." Kate offered, not wanting the answers to any of her other questions. Not yet. "You don't need me hovering." She stood up, grabbed the laptop from the desk and headed into the room furthest from the lounge. It was a bedroom, a large bed in the centre wall. She sat down on it, pulling one of the blankets that was stacked on a chair around herself.

Skye and Grant just looked at each other, not sure about what they would say.

"I never lied to you Skye. I did lie about a lot of things but I never lied about how I felt." He started, not sure if Skye would listen this time. "When you were shot, I was angry. I knew that Garrett had ordered it but we had never planned to hurt you. He knew how I felt about you, he was the only one that did. I think he hurt you because of me, to test if I would stay loyal, not just to get GH325."

"I don't care about that." Skye informed him, surprising Grant. "I got over you very quickly; I don't feel the way I did. The person I love is dead, because of me. What I need to know, is how you could look me in the eye after everything that happened? You were in a cell, you were clearly not wanted or trusted, and yet you could sill look at me the way you did."

"I could still look at you that way because I knew how I felt. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to fix everything between us, even if it meant me dying to do that." Grant admitted. "I should also explain Kate." He told her, knowing that their breakup was very soon before he joined Coulson's team.

"You don't hav…" Skye started; only to be cut off by Grant.

"I want to." He took a deep breath and began to tell her what happened. "A few months before I was assigned to Coulson's team, Kate and I were captured by some red room operatives when we were on a mission in Russia. When the extraction team came they found security footage that proved that we were in a relationship. I don't think anything would have happened if we didn't find out that she was pregnant. As far as she knew she couldn't get pregnant, but that was apparently wrong. We were immediately separated and before I knew it Coulson was ordering me to go after you.

"You reminded me of Kate. However much of what I felt was hot I felt about Kate I don't know but after you and Miles I started to separate that out. It had hurt, but not as much as it should have, and honestly I started to love you, completely separately from Kate." He explained, trying to keep his face straight.

"Are you still in love with her?" Skye asked curious, she didn't know why she asked. Maybe because part of her was jealous but she had fallen for someone else, she didn't love Grant any more.

Grant frowned slightly, thinking about what he felt. "Yeah." He answered surprised. "I think I am."

Skye smiled, liking the thought of him having someone to be with. While she didn't want to be with him, she definitely thought he deserved to be with someone. "You'd better go talk to her then."

Grant smiled greatfully at Skye, watching as she left for the elevator. He stayed sat where he was, deciding whether to talk to Kate or not. He made up his mind, grabbing a bottle of tequila and two glasses before heading to the door Kate had disappeared through. He knocked lightly and she opened the door, smiling slightly when she saw the glasses and bottle.

"Just like old times then huh?" She laughed, letting him in. She moved the laptop from the bed and onto a small table that leaned against the wall opposite the foot of her bed. They both sat down, leaning their backs against the headboard. Grant poured out the tequila and placed the bottle on a bedside cabinet. "Where's Skye?" She asked after taking a long sip.

"She went to go get food I think." Grant shrugged, he hadn't asked. "We talked; we both know that we don't love each other, not like I thought we did."

"I'm sorry." Kate frowned, seeing the blank look on Grant's face.

"Don't be." He turned to look into her eyes, his expression softening. He still saw the newbie he'd met during training. He still saw the girl that flirted with him in Italian after their mission, even though he didn't know what she was saying. And after all of the time they'd spent apart, he still saw the person who agreed to marry him.

Kate looked back, remembering the night after their mission. They were booked into a hotel for the night and so they sat in the bar, sipping on tequila. All night she switched between Italian and English, just to frustrate him, and she was hoping to get over the small crush she had developed over the last three days. He walked her to her room, and she whispered into his ear the same thing she'd been saying all night, only that time in English. "I missed you." She smiled, resting her head against his shoulder.

Grant lightly placed his hand under her chin, raising her head. He placed a light kiss on her lips, which she hastily returned and they fell back into the memory of that first night together.

 **AN- So I hope you guys liked this chapter. I was a bit worried that I was rushing things between Kate and Grant but I'm happier writing this than I was having them argue or having her reject him, it just felt too harsh. Please leave suggestions of what you think could happen and don't hesitate to tell me what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN- Someone left a review asking who Skye loved and I'm thinking about leaving it up in the air for the moment. I will bring it back round in a chapter or two but for now I think it would be nice if Skye had a secret, because all of her other secrets had been exposed. But please enjoy this chapter.**

Skye stepped out of the elevator, shocked to see that all of the Avengers, and Pepper, were gathered around a mountain of take out. A ginger woman immediately flashed Skye a large grin when she spotted her. She hurried over and gave Skye a quick hug.

"Hi, you must be Skye." She beamed, probably having recognized Skye from when she was brought in. "I'm Pepper." She walked over to the area with Skye; quickly introducing her to everyone she didn't know. Once introductions were out of the way Steve offered Skye a free seat next to him. Skye gladly took the offer and tried to disappear in their conversation.

"So, Skye, why can't I find any information about you? Even in the files released from SHIELD?" Tony asked, not thinking to filter himself.

Skye laughed, swallowing her mouthful of noodles before answering. "I deleted it, along with any information that was even remotely linked to anyone on my old team. They were rebuilding SHIELD so they needed to be invisible."

"What do you mean rebuilding it?" Steve asked.

Skye couldn't tell if he was shocked or annoyed. "Someone very high up in SHIELD gave my boss a toolbox with all of the information he would need to rebuild SHIELD, the right way. A way that you would be proud of." Skye directed at Steve, trying not to name names.

"Who?" Natasha asked, fairly sure she knew the answer. She'd seen his name in several files she'd read since she released them and she wasn't sure she could believe that it was true, until she heard Skye.

"I don't know if I can tell you." Skye admitted, looking down at her food. "Fury had ordered that you not know who this person is. Well, you do know them, but you can't know."

Everyone nodded, frowning slightly. They understood; SHIELD had ordered them all to do things they didn't like and they knew what it was like to keep secrets from people. Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes until Thor suddenly stood up and ran out of the room.

"Is he okay?" Skye asked, her eyes following Thor.

…

"Brother, I have warned you many times." Thor started, his hammer in his hand as he spoke with Loki on the roof. "I will not hesitate to kill you if you will not leave this realm in peace."

"I'm not here to attack." Loki put his hands up in surrender, hoping that he could break through to Thor. "I'm here because the allfather wants my head." Loki took a deep breath before continuing. "I used forbidden magic, a lot of it, to bring mother back."

Thor stopped dead, dropping Mjolnir, gaping at his brother. "S-she's alive."

"And you'd think Odin would be happy about that." Loki rolled his eyes, very annoyed by Odin's hypocrisy. "Instead he is after my head, possibly because I did pretend to be him in the process." Loki stopped talking before he said anything that Thor would want to kill him for.

"Come, we must hide you away." Thor spoke quickly, walking to the edge of the roof. "The humans may not forgive you for what you have done to their world. You did try to dominate it once."

"I was under the influence of the scepter too, brother. Perhaps not in the same way as the others, but Thanos was not kind to me when I first landed in his realm." Loki defended, moving to stand next to his brother. "I came to this place to seek forgiveness. I have hurt many of the people under this roof, and I wish to make up for that."

"Very well." Thor inclined his head and he led Loki to the door back into the tower. "But they may not be as accepting or forgiving as you might think.

…

Skye looked curiously at the elevator as Thor returned. A hesitant man followed behind, he seemed terrified. He was tall, had long black hair and a serious pair of cheekbones. Skye had to blink twice, not knowing what to make of the man's appearance. He spotted Skye staring, though he didn't know who she was, and winked to her. Apparently when he faced certain doom he still made time for mischief.

Clint was the first person to react, immediately grabbing Loki by the throat. "What is he doing here?" Stressing the 'he', as if he wasn't worth a name.

"He is here to seek recompense." Thor informed them, placing a hand on Clint's shoulder. "He too was under the scepter's influence."

"How do you know that?" Clint barked, tightening his grip on the Asgardian. "He could have been lying to you."

"No, he's right." Bruce piped up, the avengers amazed that he was willing to support the man who had tried to kill them. "Look at his eyes, they're green."

"As they always have been." Thor spoke, the thought of his brother lying to him making far more sense. In a moment of weakness, he had believed the man he no longer believed to be his brother.

"During the incident last year he had blue eyes." Bruce observed, walking up to Loki. "They're definitely different."

"What does his eye colour have to do with this?" Tony asked, getting very annoyed by the whole exchange.

"Clint's eyes were blue." Natasha chimed in, further surprising the gathered avengers. "When he was under Loki's influence his eyes were blue. After we brought him back, his eyes went back to normal."

Clint loosened his hold on Loki, taking a few steps back. He stayed close, ready to strike at any given moment.

"Why is he here?" Steve asked, addressing the elephant in the room, or in this case the frost giant in the room.

"I broke dozens of Asgard's laws to bring my mother back from the dead." Loki explained, holding his hands up. "Odin is after my head. I impersonated him while keeping him in the Odin sleep to gain access to the magic that I required to bring my mother back."

The avengers contemplated what he was saying, unsure of whether to trust him. Pepper piped up, having stayed silent the entire time. "You're welcome to stay Loki." She smiled, walking up to the man and pulling him into an awkward hug. "JARVIS will have a room ready for you, but I think we should monitor you to give Tony and the others some peace of mind."

"I agree." Loki smiled, turning to glance at his brother. That was when his eyes caught Skye again; she was still staring at him. "Who, may I ask, is this lovely young woman?"

"That's what we were just asking." Tony joked, directing his attention back to her.

"I should go see if Kate and Ward are hungry." She rushed, leaving the room as quickly as possible, returning less than a minute later. She was bright red and lost for words.

"I should warn you Miss Skye." JARVIS spoke up. "Mr Ward and Miss Reid are otherwise engaged."

"Thanks JARVIS." She muttered sarcastically.

"You're welcome, Miss Skye." Apparently the computer had a sense of humour, or was malfunctioning, but Skye doubted the second explanation.

Skye sat back down and held her head in her hands, trying to erase what she heard from her memory.

"So they're not hungry?" Tony poked at her, getting a rise from Skye.

"No, they're not." She growled, desperately wanting the conversation to be over.

"Sir, we seem to have a problem." JARVIS interjected, saving Skye she hoped. "Miss Reid appears to have frozen floors fifty-seven through sixty-two and is currently struggling to reverse the process." Skye groaned, not wanting to hear the never ending jokes about her ex-boyfriend.

"I can help with that Man of Iron." Loki volunteered, turning blue. Everyone in the room, minus Pepper and Skye, prepared to attack at the sign of anything going wrong. He raised his hands, a green magic appearing between them. He spread his arms apart, the green light evaporating.

"The ice appears to be gone, Mr Stark." JARVIS informed them.

"Then I'll head down to my room." Skye smiled, heading toward the elevator. "I'll see you in the morning maybe." She smiled awkwardly before stepping into the elevator. She saw Loki had kept his eyes on her, his gaze fixed on her until the elevator closed, and even after that.

"Brother." Thor called. "Brother?" Finally Thor drew Loki's attention, pulling his thoughts away from the curious girl he desperately wanted to know.

"May I retire, Miss Potts?" Loki asked, ignoring the question Thor had asked. "The journey from Asgard was not easy."

"Of course." She smiled. Loki could tell that she was being as polite as possible, dancing around him like broken glass. "You can take floor sixty-three." She moved to the elevator to head down with him and show him the basics.

…

The next morning Ward woke up with a pressure on his chest, sunlight streaming on his face and another person breathing. That was when he remembered last night. They hadn't talked like he'd planed, they did something stupid and reckless and incredible. It was like Russia had never happened, but it had very much happened, and they needed to talk about it.

Kate stirred, a light hum coming from her chest. When she opened her eyes she instantly grinned, having almost forgotten what it was like to wake up next to Grant. She was content, and the look on his face said that he wasn't. She frowned, propping herself up to look at him properly.

"We never got to talk." He started, one of his hands running along her side. "We could exchange emails but that never really happened. I never got to say goodbye to you, I didn't want to." He looked slightly broken, almost pouting at her.

"I know." She sighed. "Though the emails was my fault. I could never bring myself to reply." She avoided his eyes, knowing what they had to dig up.

"Was it a boy or a girl?" He asked, knowing that the topic would be painful for both of them.

"A girl." A tear fell down Kate's face, remembering having to push out her still child. Wishing Grant was there to hold her hand, tell her that it was okay, and protect her from the nightmares to come. "I kept thinking about what I would have called her, whether you would like the names, but I never decided. I didn't want to; I had a child ripped away from me seconds after I found out about her."

"I wish Fury hadn't made you go through that alone." Grant soothed, pulling Kate into his arms. "I should have been there; I should have been with you. And he certainly shouldn't have split us up."

"Do you think we should have tried? Even after Fury?" She asked, too scared to see his reaction.

"Given what I've done, no. If I'd just taken a step back and seen who Garrett really was, I…" That was when ward stopped wondering. "No, if I hadn't have done al of that I probably wouldn't have you in my arms right now." He placed a kiss to the top of her head.

"You fell in love with Skye." She started, knowing that they had to talk about it. "You may not be in love with her any more, but you're also not in love with me."

Grant tried to think of the best way to explain how he felt. He knew that he had to choose his words carefully or he wouldn't believe her. "I fell for Skye because she reminded me of you. There were lots of things about her that I grew to love but it was because of you. I didn't heal like I should have. I just kept digging at an old wound and then Skye walked in, she reminded me so much of you. Pieces solving a puzzle, that was her too. But I'd heard that before, you'd tried so hard to make me see that I didn't have to do everything alone."

"What's your point Grant?" She asked bluntly, obviously having missed the subtext.

"My point is…" He started, moving so that he could look into her eyes. "I am every bit in love with you now as I was back in Italy."

"Ti amo anch'io." She grinned, knowing that he didn't understand what she said. She placed a soft kiss on his lips, letting it linger.

 **AN- Plot Twist! Or not really because I think it was very predictable. I would love to hear your thoughts on what I've written so far and your ideas for future chapters.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN- This chapter was a lot of fun to write because I was able to get some Skye Loki bonding in and I have written who Skye was in love with. It went in a direction I hadn't intended it to but I'm pretty happy with the way that it turned out so please enjoy.**

The next day, all of the newcomers stayed on their respective floors, not wanting to interrupt the Avengers' latest group bonding activity. By the time night rolled around and the heroes of New York had finished throwing water balloons at each other, they shared a near silent meal, as Loki was present. He didn't mind thought, it meant that he could finish eating sooner and he wouldn't have to sit through the torturous silence for longer than was absolutely necessary. He was then escorted back to his room, having been escorted up for meals.

Loki was beginning to tire of his newfound confinement. He was informed to wait until Thor came down the next morning before he could leave his 'room', which he was grateful for them giving him. He didn't know how he would repay their kindness, especially when he still had to earn their forgiveness. And so, Loki stared up at the ceiling, not being able to sleep, contemplating how many ways he could kill a man. Not that he planned to, but it was always nice to be prepared. When three am came around, just as he was beginning to get to get to sleep, a large earthquake shook the tower. Loki immediately sprang up, running into the elevator.

"Mr Loufeyson, I am not permitted to take you through the tower unsupervised." JARVIS started.

"There's no time for that, take me to the source of the shaking, I fear it may be Thor." Loki almost screamed, getting the AI's attention.

"Very well." JARVIS replied, taking Loki down a mere two floors.

When they arrived, Loki saw that it was not Thor's chambers that he had walked into. The fact given away by the curious brunette girl having a nightmare. She had apparently fallen asleep on what looked like a very uncomfortable sofa. The shattered objects around the room indicated that this girl was the source of the shaking. He rushed over, shaking the girl, trying his best to wake her. When she did wake, she panicked, not just because the tower was shaking but because someone had been there to wake her up.

"Try to breathe." Loki instructed, showing her the deep breaths that she needed to take. "Relax your mind, erase all thoughts and focus on the sensation of breathing." After a minute of Loki encouraging her, Skye managed to stop the shaking, just in time for Grant, Kate and half of the Avengers to walk in.

"I thought it was clear that you weren't allowed to leave your room without Thor." Tony questioned the Asgardian who was kneeling down beside Skye.

"I feared that the source of the shaking may have been Thor." Loki defended, turning to look at the arrogant man. "Forgive me for wanting to help."

Kate smirked at his comment, moving to go sit with Skye. "Are you okay?" She asked, noting that Skye had tears streaming down her face.

"Yeah." Skye nodded unconvincingly. "It was just a dream." But it wasn't just a dream. She had been having nightmares about the Kree city for days now, but never this bad. She had been dreaming about Tripp, hearing his agonizing scream as the cocoon enveloped her completely, despite him kicking the crystals in an effort to stop the process. She had never slept past that part, usually having been able to shake herself awake before the shaking would start. But this time she saw him shatter, broken into millions of pieces. It was bad enough for her to have seen him turn to stone, but to think that she had done this to him. That was what caused the shaking, being unable to erase the image from her mind. "You guys can go I'll be fine."

With skeptical looks, everyone left her. Everyone but Loki, who was still knelt down by her side. "I know a lie when I hear one." He informed her, keeping his voice light and gentle. "I am the god of them. Would you like to discuss what you saw?"

"I killed someone." She whimpered. "Well, I didn't but his body shattered apart because of me." She felt the tears begin to fall again, seeing the image in front of her. "He'd been turned to stone by a shattered piece of the diviner. He was just trying to save me."

Loki looked at her, his expression full of compassion. He took a seat next to her, keeping a small distance between them to be polite. "Why did you need saving?" He asked, wanting to understand the full picture. Part of him wondered why he felt like he needed to know, but the rest of him suppressed that voice, leaving him to wonder.

"I was being changed." Skye shrugged. "Apparently I had this power inside me that hadn't been revealed yet, and the diviner was supposed to do that. To change, I was surrounded by this cocoon and I had called out to him, begging him to make it stop. I didn't know what the cocoon was meant for then, or that I would break out of it on my own. He had kicked the crystal that had triggered the change but all it did was shatter the casing that would turn people to stone if they didn't have this power inside of them. He turned to stone right in front of me, and I was so hurt, so devastated, that it unlocked my power and I shattered everything around me. Everything including him."

Loki smiled sympathetically at the sobbing girl in front of him. He had to admire how brave she was, he knew how guilt had eaten him up, and he knew that it was doing the same thing to her, but she was strong enough to tell him about it, to relive that pain. "You can't blame yourself for the passing of your friend. But you can mourn him; you can try to make his sacrifice worth it. He must have believed you were worth the risk, even if he didn't know the stakes. He must have seen something in you, something that maybe you yourself don't see."

"He wasn't just my friend." Skye whispered. "Neither of us knew it but I think I started to love him, I just didn't realize until he was gone."

Loki finally understood, puling Skye into his arms. "And so your heart went with him." He whispered back letting her cry. He held her until no more tears came and he held her even after that until he felt the warmth of the sun rise on his back. "I do not know your name." He laughed slightly when he let go of the girl.

"I'm Skye." She smiled, appreciating that this stranger had been willing to listen to her.

"Loki." He smiled, before moving to leave.

"Could you stay?" She asked, stopping him in his tracks.

"Of course, Lady Skye." He smiled, walking over to her kitchen. "I'll make some tea." From his short time observing Midgard he knew that a cup of tea was used to offer comfort, and he had drunk a lot while he was confined to his room the day before.

And so they sat, drinking the tan liquid, making small talk about the weather and other such things that were different about Earth and Asgard.

…

When Kate and Grant woke up again, they decided they would leave their room today, having done enough reminiscing the day previous. After a small comment Grant had made about how much thinner Kate was than the last time he saw her, she challenged him to a sparring match. And so they left their room to head for the gym, Kate wanting to prove that the year she spent underground hadn't done anything to her ability to kick his ass.

After they had stretched Kate stepped onto the mats in the middle of the gym, waiting for Grant to join her. The second he stepped onto the mat she attacked, knocking him to the ground with ease. When he got back up the fight got harder, with Grant now prepared for an attack. And so they fought for half an hour, Kate knocking him down more times than he did her. With one final move Kate had Grant on the ground and she pinned him down. After struggling for a few minutes Grant gave in, not being able to get Kate off of him.

"I kinda want to do this with Skye. Last time I saw her fight she was terrible." Grant smiled, remembering the months he spent training his rookie. "I was her SO in the beginning but I think May might have taken over, and I dread to think what she's learnt."

"Probably the same things as me." Kate smiled, getting off of Grant and pulling him up. "There's no harm in asking, and I wouldn't mind sparring with her either. It's not the same training with someone twice your size."

Just then Clint and Natasha entered the gym, spotting the two people standing on the mats, glistening in sweat. "Feeling up for a round?" Natasha asked, not even bothering to stretch unlike Clint.

"Sure." Kate smiled, having missed the few training sessions that Natasha had taught. "I'm just going to grab a drink first." Kate responded, grabbing her bottle of water from a bench at the edge of the room. She took a log drink and moved back onto the mats, Natasha having replaced Grant on them.

"I don't remember you ever winning one of these." Natasha poked, moving into a ready stance.

"I don't either." Kate smiled, doing the same thing.

After a few seconds of waiting both women lunged at the same time, Nat going low and Kate going high. Natasha simply slid under Kate, jumping back onto her feet. For a solid five minutes both women avoided being knocked down until Natasha feigned going high to sweep Kate's feet out from under her. After that the amount of times both women hit the mat was astonishing, with Kate losing dramatically. By the time they had finished fighting Natasha had barely broken a sweat, smirking at the agent on the ground.

"You're rusty." Natasha smirked, giving her a hand up.

"I'm just fine beating up people like Ward." She defended before realizing how stupid her response was. "But you're definitely right." She moved over to grab her water, drinking the rest of it.

"Still want to take on Skye?" Kate asked Grant, who had stayed to watch the fight between the two women.

"Sure." He smiled, moving to the elevator.

…

Loki had left a few hours after tea, letting Skye shower. Skye had been grateful for the company, having been unable to strike up a normal conversation with the resident superheroes. But she also knew what it felt like to be an orphan, like Loki was (even though he had grown up with parents but he had recently had to deal with that fact) and she knew what it felt like to be running away from something, she had been doing it her entire life. She had constantly been running from the disappointment that she felt with all of the families that had sent her back to the orphanage. The other kids thought she was brave and strong for being able to smile after she came back but really she was pretending, trying to ignore the fact that no one had wanted her. She had come to terms with it after she left the orphanage but she was still alone.

Then Coulson had come along, showing her what it was like to have a dad and a family, but even that had gone wrong. All because of her powers. But Skye tried not to dwell, she didn't want to lose control and she definitely didn't want to ruin the memories she still cherished from that family, even the memories with Ward.

With perfect timing, Grant walked out of the elevator and spotted Skye looking out of the window.

"It's been a while since we trained Rookie." He smiled hesitantly, not wanting to be rejected because she still hated him. "Want to go a few rounds, maybe let out some of that anger you have toward me."

Skye turned, contemplating Grant's offer. "You shouldn't fight angry." Skye stated, catching Grant off guard. "You're more likely to lose." When she had finished speaking she disappeared into her room.

Grant walked back over to the elevator only to hear footsteps running up behind him. Skye hadn't declined the offer, she simply gone to change. She clutched her water bottle, trying to make the elevator ride less awkward, considering this was the first time they had interacted since the ice incident a few days ago.

When they stepped out of the elevator both of them moved to the mats.

"Not going to stretch?" Grant asked, knowing that Skye usually pulled a muscle or tendon if she didn't do so.

"Nope." She replied, moving into a ready position. Apparently she had changed a lot since then.

Grant had started out going easy on her, like he had back in their training sessions, but he found himself on his back several times before he decided to go all out. Even then it didn't make a difference, Skye was knocking him to the ground with ease, something she had never been able to do before. Once they had finished, Grant knew that there was something about his time away that had changed her, other than her getting powers.

"How'd you get so good so fast?" He asked, wondering if May had been the only person to train her.

"I didn't." Skye answered. "I can still barely take down May. I used my powers." She winked, proud that she had gotten a small amount of control over them. "Admittedly I hadn't intended to the first few times but afterward I figured it wouldn't matter. I'd use it if I went out into the field so why not use it in here." She shrugged, getting a smile from Kate.

"I hadn't thought of that." She smiled, knowing that she could have taken Grant down a lot quicker if she had used hers. "Then again I could have killed him if I accidentally used my fire so…" She frowned at the thought of accidentally scorching her… who was he to her? They weren't dating strictly speaking, but they weren't just friends either. She pushed the thought from her mind, moving over to the punch bag.

Clint walked over to Skye, having watched her fight with Grant. "Natasha and I were trained by May and Coulson. Nat fights a similar way to you." Clint moved closer to her to whisper his next sentence. "And you don't fight like that without any influence from Coulson in there. I've seen the TAHITI files, the project he ran just after May left the field. I don't doubt that Fury would have dug it back up to bring someone back, especially if that person was Coulson."

"I can't talk to you about it here." Skye whispered back, knowing that any of the other Avengers could pick up on the conversation thanks to JARVIS' advanced systems. "I'll meet you on the roof in ten." With that Skye left the gym, heading up to tell the marksman that his SO was still alive and kicking.

…

Skye had been standing there for five minutes, waiting for the Avenger to join her, only to be surprised when Natasha had come with him.

"Tell us everything." Natasha requested, having guessed long before Clint had.

"After the battle of New York, Fury took Coulson's body to a facility called the Guest House. It wasn't an official SHIELD base so he knew he could keep what he was going to do a secret. After weeks of procedures, weeks of Coulson begging to die, Fury had managed to bring Coulson back and suppress his memories of the terrible procedures they had put him through to bring him back." Skye directed her next comment at Natasha. "Six months before you took down Hydra, Coulson was cleared to go back into the field, with no agents below level seven being allowed to know he was alive, and even then not many people with clearance knew. He had ordered that no one was to tell you and the rest of the Avengers that he was alive, that no one was to tell anyone that he was alive. He was worried about what could happen to Coulson. Fury had approached Agent May with parameters for the new team he was going to give Coulson command of so that he could make sure that everything they might need could be there if he started to go crazy. A medic to repair his body, an engineer to reprogram his mind, an agent that would be able to take him down, or take him out if it came to it. May selected the people she thought would be right for the job and gave their files to Fury. Fury then wrote up a brief to give to Coulson with new parameters so that Coulson would only be able to choose the people May had picked."

The two assassins stood silent, keeping all emotion out of their expression, waiting for Skye to finish her story.

"He selected Fitzsimmons, two of SHIELD's best scientists. Simmons' background being Biochemistry and Fitz's background being engineering. Then there's Agent Ward, the same Agent downstairs, who just so happens to be a specialist who could easily subdue Coulson if he needed to. They were never told the real reason they were on the team, only May knew. Coulson had May on board to fly the plane, Fury knowing that he would choose her so that he could have her monitor him and report back every few days using an encrypted hardline in the cockpit. After a few missions she volunteered to go back into the field. She was probably sick of me messing things up." Skye noted the displeasure on the assassins' faces, Skye would have had the same reaction if she knew about Bahrain before May went back. "I was brought onto the team by chance, I was their first target because I had been a hacker for the Rising Tide and because of that Fury didn't like me. He thought that I could risk Coulson remembering because I was a variable, an 084 if you will." Skye took a deep breath before jumping ahead in the story, to a few months ago when Coulson had gone crazy.

"What Fury was so scared of, it happened." Skye tried to remember exactly what happened, not sure on the details herself. "Agent Garrett, a Hydra sleeper agent and Grant's SO, had me shot so he could go after a drug called GH325 which had been used to bring Coulson and half a dozen other people back to life. He managed to get several vials from the Guest House when they had gone to find some for me, but none of them were 325. After a few days they managed to create their own formula and when Garrett had been injected with it he started to go insane. He was talking about being able to see the universe, and he kept carving these strange symbols, as if it made perfect sense to him. When we stopped Ward and Garrett and got our plane back Coulson saw these carvings and he started to carve them too."

Skye noticed the assassins expressions flicker with dread before they made themselves look as normal as they could. "He was carving for a few months, he had asked me to try and figure out what it meant but I had nothing to work from. I didn't even know the carvings were his. We found similar carvings all over the world from the people who had been part of the TAHITI project. When we finally figured out what the carvings meant and where they led to, he stopped. It was happening because the drug in all of their systems was alien. They had used alien blood to create the serum and because said alien was desperate to return home, when it was in their system it acted like a homing pigeon, the carvings showing them a Kree city. When we figured it out the carvings stopped, almost like the Kree blood was satisfied that it knew it could get home. He's fine now, but he wasn't for a while there."

After a few minutes of silence from the two assassins, Natasha finally spoke up. "How did he cope?"

"I don't think he did." Skye responded, causing the assassins to panic again. "He tried fighting the need to carve, but eventually he always would. He'd even asked that if it became out of control and Coulson couldn't lead SHIELD anymore that May shoot him."

"I wish we'd known." Clint whispered, trying to conceal the emotions boiling up inside him. He was angry at Fury, angry at Coulson and May, angry at the girl in front of him. But he was glad that Coulson was alive, glad that there was one person he could take off of his list from when he had been under Loki's control. And he was terrified by what Coulson had gone through, if his SO had begged to be killed, something had to be very bad and very wrong with him. "Where is he?"

"I don't know if I should tell you, it is a SHIELD base." Skye responded but when she saw the stony glare from the two agents in front of her she changed her mind. "He's in one of Fury's secret facilities. It's an old SSR base in Tuscon, they call it the Playground. It's pretty well defended, be very careful when you get close." Skye gave them the address and watched as they ran into the tower, a quinjet leaving a mere minute later. Skye took a deep breath, knowing that Coulson would be pissed that she had told them he was alive, she just hoped that he would forgive her.

 **AN- So some of the Avengers know Coulson's alive, Skye's dealing with her feelings for Tripp and Loki just so happened to be the one comforting her. Please don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts and ideas.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN- I've been working on chapter 8 for a while and I only just realized that I haven't uploaded this one (which has been on my laptop for like two and half weeks) so I hope you enjoy this chapter and the next as I will be uploading it within the next few hours (fingers crossed).**

Coulson ran through the Playground, the alarms blaring. There was an incoming aircraft, non hostile so far but that could easily change with the drop of a hat. According to May it was a modified quinjet, two passengers inside; she was trying to get a visual on the pilot last time he spoke. Coulson ran into the command centre, watching as May and Fitz typed away at several keyboards with a video feed zooming in to the cockpit.

When the computer scanned the faces and brought up their files May and Coulson froze.

"How did Agents Romanoff and Barton find us?" Fitz asked, doing some more digging.

"Skye." May stated, moving out of the command centre, leaving Fitz confused.

"You remember when May and Bobbi went to New York to go after Ward?" Coulson asked, receiving a slow nod from Fitz. "Skye and Agent Reid approached him, managed to calm him down and informed us that they would be taking Agent Ward back to Stark Tower. I assume Skye told Agents Barton and Romanoff that I'm still alive."

"Why would she do that?" Fitz asked; confusion evident in his expression.

"Knowing Barton and Romanoff they wouldn't have given her a choice." Coulson frowned, watching the plane land on the video feed. "I guess I should get this over with." Phil sighed, walking out of the Playground to meet his former Rookies.

It shocked Phil that the two of them didn't immediately shoot him, but pull him into a bone crushing hug. He thought he was imagining things when he felt Natasha's tears fall onto his shoulder.

"You were dead." Clint managed to push out. "You actually died." The man appeared to be holding back tears, even though his partner was more than comfortable letting them fall.

"Fury shouldn't have done all of that to you." Natasha sobbed. "He should have let you rest."

"I know Natasha." He whispered, pulling the red head back into a hug. "I know."

…

When Skye finally left the roof, having been unsure if she had made the right decision, she was met with a large crowd of confused faces, some of which had food in their mouths. Skye ignored their looks as she sat down in one of the two empty chairs either side of Loki, surprising the avengers who had left her a seat far away from him. She grabbed a piece of pizza and nibbled at it, unsure of how she would explain where Natasha and Clint went.

The conversation slowly started up again, leaving Skye and Loki in silence.

"You seem troubled, Lady Skye." Loki frowned, having finished his slice.

His comment caught Skye off guard as she was in the middle of a bite. She swallowed it quickly, ignoring the pain in her throat. "I did something, told someone a secret and I'm not sure if I had the right to tell it. Or whether it was the right choice."

Loki took a moment to think before responding. "If it was something important, something you know this person needed to know then I am sure that you can be forgiven." Loki smiled to her, reassuring Skye only slightly.

"It's just… it was something to do with you." She bit her lip, knowing that was the wrong choice of words. "Well, you did something before New York and it had me thinking that this person needed closure because of something you had done, which had taken away someone important to them. I told them where this person was, something that this person had been keeping a secret and I'm not sure it was my place to tell it."

Loki understood, nodding his head. "All you can do is ask for this person's forgiveness." Loki smiled slightly. "I am sure the Son-of-Coul would readily forgive you." He whispered, making sure the others didn't hear him.

"I never…" Skye started, unsure of how to respond.

"When I was impersonating the all father, Sif had come to me with worries about Lorelei, who had once again been broken out of prison during the events leading up to my fake death." He began to explain, still speaking in hushed tones. "She told me of a team of people who had helped her capture Lorelei including yourself, Agent Ward and the Son-of-Coul. I sent her to bring Lorelei back and after her departure asked Heimdall of what she had said, that a man that I had killed was still alive. He confirmed these suspicions to me, and that was when he started to suspect that I was in the all father's place. This information had become less important to me as I rushed to find what I needed to bring back my mother, I had almost forgotten about it until now."

"Thank you." Skye smiled. "For telling me."

"I should also apologise." Loki frowned. "I saw the repercussions the Son-of-Coul had gone through, something that wouldn't have needed to happen if it weren't for me. The two of you are close, and I have done a lot to hurt you both, even though you may not have realized."

"I can forgive you." Skye smiled, catching the Asgardian off guard. "I once did something to hurt my team, I betrayed them, and they still forgave me. They still let me be a part of that family, so I can't blame you forever. We have all done things that we regret, things that have hurt other people. Some more than others, but everyone deserves a second chance." She smiled, placing a hand on his arm.

…

"Natasha." May smiled, having waited for Coulson and the two assassins to enter the Playground. The red head grabbing Melinda's hand.

"It's good to see you." Natasha smiled, knowing that it must have been hard to return to the field after Bahrain. "You seem better." Melinda knew exactly what Natasha meant, and she was glad that the assassin didn't think she was broken, at least not as much as she had been before.

"How long are you two staying?" Melinda asked; glad to see her rookie again. She remembered when Clint had found Natasha, she was young and broken, but she knew that Natasha would be okay the second the girl asked to be trained. She knew Natasha was strong, and this proved everything that she had ever thought about the girl.

"Not long." Clint frowned, still not trusting Loki. "A certain Asgardian brought home a stray. A very evil, deadly stray."

"Loki?" Coulson asked, wondering why Thor would have changed his opinion of his brother so quickly.

"Yeah." Clint frowned again, not believing Loki's story. "Apparently he was under the scepter's influence too. Some guy named Thanos wanted the tesseract and in exchange for giving Loki an army to take over earth, that was his price. Apparently he went through a rough patch before Thanos made him the offer and all of a sudden he was in a cell, remembering everything that he had done. I don't believe him, it's one hell of a lie."

"And you want to keep as close an eye on him as possible." Coulson nodded, understanding his friend's stance. He himself didn't like the thought of the Asgardian Mussolini walking around New York.

Before Clint could respond his phone rang, Tony's caller ID showing up on the screen. "What is it Stark?" He huffed into the phone, receiving a tut from the other end.

"Just wondering where you went?" Tony smiled, trying to make his next statement easier to digest. "And to update you on Reindeer Games' latest activities. You know he stayed with Skye when she had an episode but he stayed with her until nine in the morning. That and he is having a very nice, poorly whispered, conversation with Skye right now. Something about someone he stabbed through the chest is still alive and kicking."

"I'll explain about that later, Tony." Clint tried to make his voice sound as normal as possible. "Skye and Loki are probably talking because of the tension between Skye and Ward. That and the fact that we aren't the most approachable people, especially not to him. Don't sweat it, there's probably nothing wrong."

"Sure thing." Tony sounded skeptical. "Get back as soon as you can. I've got a bad vibe."

"We'll be back as soon as we can." Clint smiled, ending the call.

"What's happening?" Natasha asked, although she had listened in on the phone call.

"Tony's overreacting to Skye making friends with Loki." Clint explained. "Although I am surprised considering your relationship with Skye. And they let slip that you were alive, sort of. Tony was eavesdropping."

Coulson nodded, feeling the same way that Clint did. He didn't like that Skye was getting cozy with the man that killed him, but he knew that Skye could handle herself, and she wouldn't do anything without a good reason. Or at least he hoped she wouldn't.

"Would you guys mind if I came back with you to speak to Skye?" Coulson asked, knowing that he would probably have to defend his reasons, which he did. "I've managed to calm Simmons down enough to see the stress she must have caused Skye, and she'd not too worried that Skye had kept it a secret. But I would like to talk to her about it, and I think Kate would appreciate that too."

"Tony will probably want to see you all things considered." Clint nodded, looking ever at Natasha, having a silent conversation with the woman. "I don't see a problem with it, but if she wants you gone you leave immediately."

"Of course." Coulson agreed, moving with May to get their own quinjet. "We'll meet you at the tower."

…

Skye had been in the main living room for a while, chatting with Loki as they looked out over the city from their place on the balcony, their elbows resting on the railing. She didn't know how she felt about the man, after all he did stab Coulson, but she was learning to forgive Ward so she could easily forgive Loki.

"Something is troubling you." Loki frowned, moving closer to Skye so that their shoulders were touching. "Is it the Son-of-Coul? Or is it that you are unfamiliar with the people here, unlike Agent Reid who suggested you come?"

"Yeah, I guess it is." Skye shrugged, keeping her eyes fixed on the view. "I feel like an outsider here, and that was exactly what I ran away from. People were scared of people like me. Inhumans with powers and I'd hoped that it would be different here but it's like they flinch every time something shakes, whether it's my fault or not."

Loki dutifully listened to everything that Skye said, understanding where she was coming from. He too had hoped to escape the fear his people had for him but here it was the only thing they would hold on to. "I am not afraid of you, Lady Skye." Loki spoke softly. The way he saw Skye, was completely different to the way he ever looked at anyone. She was strong and beautiful, inside and out, but she had so much compassion, so much love, that he couldn't help but slowly fall for her. Even if he didn't realize it.

Skye looked up at Loki, searching his emerald green eyes for any ounce of fear, anything to prove that he should be afraid of her. But she didn't see it. All she saw was a warm gaze, filled with a look that she hadn't seen since SHIELD fell, since Ward. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized that she must be looking at him the same way. "Maybe you should be." She warned, knowing what happened to the last person she fell for. She didn't have luck when it came to men, and she didn't want to add Loki to the list of tragedies.

"I could never fear you." Loki scanned Skye's eyes as he leaned closer to her, looking for any sign for him to stop. But one never came. They both closed their eyes and allowed their lips to touch. It was a light, gentle kiss. Loki placed a hand on Skye's cheek as he deepened the kiss, using his other hand to pull Skye closer to him. Skye rested both hands on his chest, feeling the speed at which Loki's heart was beating.

"What the hell?" A voice behind them yelled, the pair jumping apart.

…

May landed the quinjet in the hangar just behind Natasha's, quickly shutting down the engines. "Let's go see Skye." May suggested, giving Phil a reassuring smile. They moved quickly through the tower, following close behind Natasha and Clint, Coulson wanting to speak to Skye before explaining to the avengers how he was alive. When they reached the floor Skye was on, Coulson took a deep breath, hoping that Skye wouldn't turn him away. When he opened the door he was more than shocked to see Skye in Loki's arms, kissing no less.

"What the hell?" He demanded, the two quickly breaking apart. He stared between Skye and Loki, looking for something, anything, to explain what was going on. "Well?" He asked again, slightly hurt that Skye would betray him for the man that killed him. He loved Skye like a daughter and it made his skin crawl to think what Loki had done to her to turn her against him.

"I honestly don't know AC." Skye barely whispered, looking guiltily at the ground.

"If I may…" Loki started hoping to relieve some of the tension building up in the room.

"No you may not." Coulson cut off, not wanting to hear a single word from the Asgardian.

"Why don't we give them some space, Loki?" Natasha suggested, the three agents having been too shocked to say anything. Loki simply inclined his head and moved past Coulson to follow the assassins from the room, leaving May, Skye and Coulson in to talk.

"Honestly AC, I'm sorry. It just happened." Skye defended. "He's been helping me get control of my powers, and he actually talks to me. Everyone else is a bit intimidating."

"And a mass murderer isn't?" Coulson asked, sighing. "I didn't come here to argue with you. I came to tell you that everyone has calmed down, they're willing to help you. Especially Simmons. She feels guilty about what she said and she wants you to come back. We all do."

"Thanks AC." Skye smiled solemnly, Coulson sensed a but coming. "But I don't know if I can go back. I still can't sleep without almost destroying the place. Here that's not as much of a problem but in an underground base, I could bring the place down without even turning over."

"That's not the only reason, is it?" May asked, having gotten to know her Rookie very well since she started training her.

Skye shook her head. "You can all tell me that it's not my fault, but Tripp died because of me." A tear threatened to fall down Skye's face. "I know he was only trying to save me but that got him killed, and it was my fault you found him in ashes. I can't go back, not after that."

"This isn't about Loki is it?" Coulson asked, suspecting that there was a lot more to what he had seen than Skye claimed.

"No." Skye responded almost automatically. "I don't know." She genuinely didn't know what had happened between them, but Skye was sure that it wouldn't be the last time she kissed the God of Lies.

"Okay." Coulson nodded, unconvinced. "We'll leave you here then."

"You should probably tell the others that you're here." Skye suggested, stopping Coulson from walking out of the room. "Not just Kate and Grant."

Coulson nodded and left the room, May following him. It wasn't a goodbye, and Skye was certain that she wouldn't get one.

Skye took a deep breath before dropping to the ground, leaning against the glass barrier in the railing. "What am I gonna do?"

 **AN- So there you have it, a little Skye/Loki for you. I'm not sure if they have a ship name but I'm going to keep shipping it. The next chapter will hopefully have more about Kate and the avengers' reaction to Coulson being alive. But I hope you liked this chapter, please tell me if you liked it, if you didn't and if you have anything you want to see in the future.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN- So I recently found out how much it costs to fix a really old laptop. I only managed to break the wifi card so it wasn't too bad but it meant I couldn't post this chapter. I will probably be posting less frequently with this story because I start college in a few weeks so I won't have as much time to dedicate to fan fiction but I promise I will keep updating. But do enjoy this chapter in the mean time.**

The Avengers had taken Coulson's news well. They had spent hours talking about what they had been doing since he died and making all sorts of inside jokes that Kate and Grant didn't understand. But that didn't matter; they were getting to know the people they were living with, especially since they had gotten near full control of their powers and were being involved in their missions to take out Hydra cells.

Skye however wasn't so fortunate. Since Coulson's visit she stayed almost exclusively in her room, which Tony had shielded after the incident and he also put some workout equipment in there since she refused to leave and spent her time doing spontaneous pushups. Skye was grateful but she didn't want to put anyone in danger, so she hacked JARVIS and had him close off her room so that nobody could enter without her permission.

And that was how she stayed for weeks; while the Avengers and their two newest members became the least inconspicuous mesh of people the world had seen so far, all because Tony liked branding.

Things were fairly interesting in that respect for Grant because he had spent so long with Hydra, learning everything about them and now he was betraying them, although it didn't feel like betrayal. Kate too was having a hard time, mostly because she kept accidentally turning people to ice instead of just incapacitating them, but she could fine-tune her powers when she had the time. Since she had used her powers against May, Kate had been wary of using some of the other elements she had control over. They were very powerful and very dangerous so she stuck to using ice, water and air which were the least harmful of the bunch.

After a particularly easy mission, Kate decided to try to see Skye again, knowing that the hacker would at least be a little excited when she heard her news. But this time she wasn't going to ask. Tony had been working on breaking her hack for weeks and had just finished fixing what she had done to JARVIS. Kate took the opportunity while she could and stormed into Skye's room, though the hacker wasn't surprised. She just stayed where she was, beating the punching bag that she had hung up near the corner of her room.

"Do you want to come for a walk with me?" Kate asked, knowing that she didn't need to announce herself.

"Not really." Skye replied coldly, unwrapping her hands to turn and talk to her friend, if they were still friends. Skye frowned when she realized how abrasive she had been. "I just don't think it's a good idea, I'm still having tremors at least once a day and I don't think causing a massive earthquake in New York would be handled all that well."

"Then I guess we're staying here to tell you the news." Kate smiled, dragging Skye over to the sofa. "We found a group of Inhumans, just like us. Not all of them have powers but the ones who do could help us, help you." Kate was grinning from ear to ear, but that smile started to fade when she saw that Skye was less than excited. "I think it would be good for you to get away. This place is in the middle of nowhere, with people who understand what you went through. There are people there who teach and prepare people for the change, help them come to terms with the change and learn not just to control it but understand it. Just consider going, I know that I want to, I still have five elements I'm terrified of."

"I'm not too sure." Skye hesitated. "From the sound of it they have a very specific way of doing things, and I don't want to be the outsider who ruins it."

"The woman I spoke with, their leader, told me that there wouldn't be anything wrong with us learning how to control these gifts. There might be a little jealousy with the people who haven't changed yet but that won't be a reason for them to force us to leave. We have a chance of learning about who we are and I would really like to take it, and I want you to do the same."

Skye sat in silence, thinking things through. She knew that there was no way she would be able to control her powers on her own, or even with the avengers helping her if they would stop being so twitchy. "I'll…" Before she could finish there was a loud crash coming from upstairs. Skye and Kate moved, swiftly making their way to the roof.

When they reached their destination Skye was more than shocked to se Sif standing on the roof in full battle gear. "This world is in danger." Sif announced to Thor, ignoring the rest of the people on the roof. "The Kree experiment from centuries ago, it is becoming out of control. With the help of the Son-of-Coul I managed to return the Kree who came in search of the terrigen crystals but there are worse things at stake. A group has attacked, hundreds are dead and Heimdall fears they plan a much larger attack." Sif suddenly stopped turning to lunge at Skye and Kate. "They're already here." Before she could attack Thor and Loki both held her back, trying to stop her from attacking their newfound allies.

"They came to us for help, not to attack." Thor barked at Sif, only making her struggle against them more. "Two of the people here were in the numbers attacked; another was coaxed to a Kree city with no knowledge of what was going to happen."

"They are weapons." Sif spat, ripping free of Thor and Loki's grasp. "Their only purpose was to destroy; nothing good can come from them. We must remove them before the threat becomes too great."

Skye could feel the building start to shake again and started to panic, trying desperately to stop it.

"As I told you." Sif yelled over the rumbling. "We must eradicate them before they destroy this world." Thor grabbed Sif again to stop her from attacking Skye while Loki rushed to Skye's side, trying to calm her, only for his words to fall on deaf ears.

She brought her hands to her ears trying to block out Sif's shouts, trying to calm herself down. "I can't do it." Skye whined, the shaking increasing. "Someone stop me. Please, someone stop me." Skye fell to the ground sobbing, trying desperately to stop the shaking.

Loki crouched down beside her, grabbing Skye's hands away from her head. He placed a hand on her cheek, moving so that she could look at him. "You can do this." He whispered, sighing at the panicking woman in front of him. "Remember how you felt when you were first changed. That pain is what is making you so scared, so out of control. Remember it, focus on it and accept it. You can't fear yourself otherwise you really will be what Sif is afraid of, what you are afraid of." Skye sat up, bringing her eyes up to meet Loki's the tears stopping.

"How?" She asked, the shaking subsiding a little. "I killed him, it was all because of me."

"Take it from someone with experience." Loki smiled reassuringly. "You have to be willing to forgive yourself, otherwise there won't be any reason to ask for forgiveness. Let him go, Skye. Let him go."

With one last sob the shaking stopped and Skye collapsed into Loki's arms, crying once again.

"She is no danger to anyone, Sif." Loki spoke harshly, suddenly angry at the woman. "None of them are." Loki wrapped his arms tighter around Skye's fragile frame, resting his chin on her head.

"You should return to Asgard." Thor advised his friend. "Heimdall." He called, signaling for the gatekeeper to have Sif removed.

"She may not be a threat, but there are those who are." Sif warned before the bifrost engulfed her, leaving only the burned pattern on the roof.

Loki lifted Skye and transported them to her room. Loki carried her to her bedroom, laying her tenderly on the bed. He turned to leave but Skye grabbed his hand.

"Stay."

…

Kate stared at the scene on the roof in awe, still having not moved. Grant walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her slender frame. "You still want to go don't you?" He asked, having declined the offer to join Jiaying in the secluded 'Afterlife'.

"I have to." Kate sighed, turning to face Grant while not leaving his embrace. "I'm not stable like you. I have so much power and I can barely control it. It's almost natural for me to use ice and water but the darkness, it so vast and so deep that I can't control it on my own, I know I can't. I have to where it'll be safe for me to learn, safe for me to use those powers, somewhere you'll be safe from me."

"One burn is hardly…" Grant started, trying to defend her.

"And what about the rest of them?" She asked, pushing away from him. "And the broken bones. And the damage that I have already done, even before I got these powers." Kate sighed, frowning at Grant. "I have to go, I don't have a choice." Kate took a deep breath before heading toward the door. "Gordon is coming within the next hour. Please change your mind by then." She almost begged before leaving to finish packing.

…

Kate found herself on the roof again, waiting for Gordon to arrive and take her to Afterlife. She knew Grant wouldn't come with her, and Skye obviously had a thing for Loki so there was no way she would leave the tower. She was more than surprised when she saw Grant walk onto the roof, clutching something in his fist, holding it tightly to his chest.

"I'm not coming with you." He started, stopping about a foot from her. "I just wanted to return something that belonged to you." He held out his hand, and in it was the engagement ring she had returned to him that day in the med bay.

"I love you but, we aren't back there yet." She frowned, looking up at his still hopeful face. "There's still too much that we need to fix. We're different people. With different lives."

"I know." He shrugged, keeping his hand outstretched. "This meant that we were going to get married. But now I want it to mean that I love you, and that I don't like the fact you're going to a secret village filled with people with superpowers, but I'm letting you go anyway."

Kate took the ring from his hand, holding it between two fingers. "I won't wear it then." She breathed. "But I will take it with me."

That was when Grant held out a familiar blade. "I assume you remember this." He nodded to the metal. "You did throw it at me once." He smiled, before it glowed slightly, warping and spinning until it was a long thin chain. He took the ring from her and slipped it onto the chain before fusing the two ends. He offered it to her with a small smirk. "Wear it like this instead." He slid the chain around her neck. "Don't do anything stupid." He almost begged.

"Don't worry about me." Kate rolled her eyes. "I kick ass for a living remember."

"That I certainly do." Grant smiled, before a blue light flashed behind her.

"Are the both of you coming?" He asked surprise, looking directly at him, even though he didn't have any eyes.

"Just me." Kate informed him, walking over to the man. "I love you." She smiled to Grant, her fingers playing with the ring.

"I love you too." He replied, his smile melancholy.

Kate nodded to Gordon and in a flash they were gone, leaving Grant alone. A single tear fell from his eye, he knew that he wouldn't see her again, no matter what she had tried to say to reassure him. She wasn't coming back.

 **AN- So this was a little shorter than usual and everything was a little more rushed than I wanted it to be but I lost all motivation for writing about Coulson while I was waiting for my laptop to be repaired. I hope you guys are happy with this chapter, please tell me what you think and leave any suggestions for things you want to see in future chapters.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN- I want to focus on Skye and Loki for a little bit before I move over to Kate and Jiaying and all of the other characters that we see in the last few episodes of season 2.**

"Tell me about him." Loki asked, lying next to Skye.

"He had such a pure heart for someone who was trained to shoot first ask questions later." Skye smiled slightly. "His grandfather was one of the howling commandos with Captain America so it doesn't really surprise me that he's the same. But he was funny and gentle, but he made me feel so safe, so secure when he was around." Skye felt tears stinging in her eyes, threatening to fall. "He would bring me coffee when I was working on deciphering some Kree writing that we'd found. It was always late and he would sit with me, talking about anything and everything. He didn't know how I felt, but I don't think I'd have told him. Especially not after the last relationships I'd been in. They always end with my heart broken."

"May I enquire as to why these relationships end?" Loki asked, feeling Skye shift even closer to him.

"Because they were never who I thought they were." Skye explained, curling into Loki's side. It made her skin tingle when he wrapped an arm around her, and not in a bad way. "They always start with these amazing people who just want to do the right thing and end with everything I'd thought about them being a lie. And one time, with everything I thought he thought about me being a lie too."

Loki sighed, placing a light kiss into Skye's hair. "This Antoine sounded very genuine; I believe he wouldn't have lied to you."

"Why?" Skye asked, the tears slowly fading away.

"Because I can't lie to you." Loki sighed, not being able to think of anything other than the truth. "I'm the God of Lies and I can do nothing but tell you the truth."

Skye didn't say anything else; she just nodded, somehow burying herself deeper into Loki's grasp. She felt safe again, something she hadn't felt since before San Juan. She let herself fall asleep, no longer worried about her powers. She had fixed her in less than a day, something she had been trying to do for weeks.

The next morning Skye woke alone, but there was a warm patch next to her in the bed. Someone had left recently; she just had to remember who it was. She stretched slightly and sat up, looking around the room to see who was there. That was when Skye remembered her panic when Sif had come to warn them about Inhumans. She had wanted Skye dead and Loki saved her, stopped her from destroying everything around her. She remembered his words, his touch, and she wished he was still here, she wished she could still feel protected.

Skye quickly showered and changed, heading up to the main living room, where she hoped some if not all of the towers inhabitants would be. But it was only six am. When the elevator opened Skye was surprised to only find four people gathered around a small dining table. She recognized Grant first, but the others were slightly harder to identify, only slightly. Sat with him were Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Steve Rodgers. Skye's heart fell a little when she saw that Loki wasn't there, but he couldn't just disappear. She could talk to him later.

"Morning." Skye smiled shyly, taking a seat between Steve and Natasha. Everybody didn't seem shocked by her suddenly interacting, everyone but Steve.

"Are you any better?" Steve asked, immediately face palming. "I was just wondering, Sif didn't exactly come throwing roses everywhere."

"I'm good." Skye smiled, catching Grant's eye. "I don't think I'll have as many problems with my powers." Skye quickly moved to get a mug of coffee, suddenly wishing she could hide her face behind it. She was just about to pour some in a mug when a hand placed a steaming mug in front of her.

"I thought you might like some but you were gone when I got to your room." Loki smiled, leaning against the counter, taking a sip from his own mug. Apparently he had changed too, now wearing a deep green shirt, the same colour as his eyes. Skye shook her head slightly, wishing that she hadn't noticed that particular detail.

"Thanks." Skye smiled, taking a long gulp of the hot liquid. She didn't care that she just burnt her throat; she just needed an excuse to hide her blush. She didn't even know why she was blushing. "Not just for this, but for helping me yesterday. I felt safe, something I haven't felt for a little while now."

Loki smiled, practically beaming. "I would gladly help you again, Lady Skye." He walked over to the table, not taking a seat but standing awkwardly at one of the corners.

Skye shook her head, sitting back down at the table. She definitely needed to figure out what she was thinking. She was blushing because of a shirt, and she never got flustered. She usually made other people blush, something that she was very proud to say she made Grant Ward do. Skye took another long sip of coffee, looking down to notice she'd already drunk half of it.

"You okay Skye?" Grant asked, shaking Skye from her thoughts.

"Yeah, I was just thinking." She said absently, staring into the black liquid. She hated black coffee, she realized, surprised that she didn't have her usual aversion to the bitter liquid. "So who exactly are you guys?" Skye asked, looking between the Avengers that were present. "I know of you because you're legends but I don't actually know you."

Steve blinked a few times, realizing that she was right. While they had gotten to know Grant and Kate, Skye was a completely different story. She had been terrified since she had gotten to the tower and they weren't the most approachable group of people. Steve coughed, starting with a small introduction. "I'm Steve, I grew up in pre world war two Brooklyn and I wasn't always this strong, or tall."

"This isn't alcoholics anonymous." Clint laughed, finishing his coffee with a large swig. "I used to perform in a circus before Agent Coulson picked me up. Spent half my time at SHIELD trying to prove I was 'worthy' of him only to realize that he didn't care and actually found the whole thing funny. It was a bit ironic that it was my fault he died but he's not dead so a little of that guilt is gone." Skye knew the look in his eyes, he still felt guilty but for a different reason.

"Actually, Agent Barton, I killed Agent Coulson." Loki offered, attempting to reassure the man. "I was controlling you and I stabbed him through the chest. None of the blame can fall on your head, it rests on mine." Clint looked at the Asgardian with a questioning glance, which slowly faded into one of relief. The two gave each other a small nod before talking no more about it.

Skye smiled at the two of them. Loki was actually doing it, fixing the damage he'd caused. Skye was a little skeptical at first but it amazed her that he really was making amends. She just had to make Coulson see that.

"Come on Nat, why don't you share a little." Clint smiled, nudging the woman in the arm. She didn't react per se but looked at him with an eyebrow raised and looked back to her coffee. "It's not that painful." He joked, moving to refill his mug.

"Fine." She sighed, apparently biting the bullet after a lot less persuasion than the table thought it would take. "I was born in Russia, was trained by the red room to be a killer and soon learnt from SHIELD a lot more ways to kill a man." Although she didn't look at Clint while she was talking, everyone knew that she was threatening the man.

"You two seem a lot like Coulson and May." Skye remarked, earning a laugh from Clint while Natasha rolled her eyes. "What?" She asked, unsure of what had triggered their reactions.

"You pick up a lot from your SO, especially when you're as close as Nat and I were." Clint explained, having sat back down. "The same thing with you, that's how I knew that May and Coulson had been training you, you're a lot like the two of them. Enough to be their kid." Clint joked.

"I wish I had parents like them." Skye shook her head. "My dad is a cold blooded murdering psychopath and my mom was killed by Hydra so that Whitehall could live forever." Skye realized that no one at in the room knew what she was talking about and quickly explained. "My dad massacred an entire village when he saw that SHIELD was trying to take me in, I was a baby at the time."

"Why would SHIELD want a child?" Steve interrupted; knowing that something that Peggy Carter was involved in wouldn't want to experiment on a child. Or at least he hoped not.

"I was an 084, an object of unknown origin. All they knew about me was that I had powers and some people were coming after me." Skye explained. "Those people being Whitehall and Hydra who were experimenting on people with powers. That was why they went after my mom, because she was gifted. But my dad broke after that, and he has killed a lot of people trying to get my attention."

"I'm sorry." Steve whispered.

"Don't be." Skye shrugged. "I wouldn't have found SHIELD if that hadn't happened. My life would be completely different and I don't think I'd want that." Skye finished her coffee, ignoring the looks she was receiving from the people around her. Skye decided she'd change the subject. "What else could you tell me about May and Coulson? Did they ever have a thing? Because I could totally see that, especially with the way they act now." Skye asked, quickly getting ahead of herself.

"No." Natasha shook her head, she too finishing her coffee. "But she was married once to a SHIELD contracted psychologist no less. It ended after a few years after Bahrain. I don't know what happened but I know he left her after a few months." Nat hated the guy, she didn't like that he abandoned her SO and she certainly didn't like his attitude toward her when she asked him about it. "He said he wouldn't watch her destroy herself but I think he just hurt his ego. He was used to fixing people and Melinda is not someone that you can just fix on a whim. It took us years to get her to help plan missions; she ran backend on a few when we were desperate. Even then she wasn't the same."

"Wow." Skye blinked, not sure how to take in what Natasha had told her. "Coulson told me that she wasn't the same, but he never told me she was married. He told me everything he knew about the mission."

"Neither of them told us that much." Clint remarked. Not jealously. "You must be very special if Phil told you that."

"I guess." Skye shrugged, pulling her phone out of her pocket to see if she had any messages. She hadn't looked at her phone since Sif had arrived.

A few were the usual ones from Fitz, Hunter and Bobbi, keeping her updated on what had been happening recently. One was from Jemma, still apologizing profusely for how she acted toward Skye before she left. Skye had already forgiven her but apparently Jemma wasn't paying attention to that part. And one was from Kate.

 _I know you didn't want to come to Afterlife but there are a few people you should see. I'll see if Jiaying will send Gordon if you want to come._

Skye looked over the message, not sure how to respond. She was glad Kate was making friends but she didn't like that she was being so cryptic.

 _Okay, but this better be good._

She responded, knowing it would make her friend laugh. She was glad they were still friends, after everything Skye had done to push her away it was nice to be able to talk to her again. Normally.

Her reply came almost instantly.

 _Fifteen minutes, better be ready._

Apparently it wasn't the early morning for Kate, because she was sure she wouldn't be replying so quickly if it were. Then again, all of the SHIELD agents in the tower were up this early, same with the Playground. It wouldn't have surprised her if everyone who had ever passed through SHIELD had acquired the same body clock.

"I have to go." Skye announced standing up from the table, still looking at her phone. "Kate needs me for something." She ignored Grants questions as she ran to her room, quickly picking packing the few items of clothing she had into a bag she'd found in the bottom of the closet.

Skye took a quick look in the mirror, wondering if she was ready to be surrounded by people with powers. She was sure it was safe but from what Kate had said people would be whispering and talking, and Skye didn't know how she would react to that.

Before she could think about it any more a man with no eyes appeared a few feet away from her in a flash of blue light.

"Are you ready, Skye?" He asked. Skye assumed that this was the Gordon Kate had been referring to, but she didn't know how he knew her name. But then Skye realized Kate would have told them her name.

"Not really." Skye laughed. "Lets go."

Gordon closed the gap between them and put a hand on Skye's arm, engulfing them in a blue light.

 **AN- There we have it. Skye will be in Afterlife when we pick back up with her. The next chapter will be following Kate right after she left with Gordon. It should be interesting. Please leave a review telling me what you think of this chapter and the story in general.**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN- I'm sorry this is so late, I've been overloaded with coursework and uni application stuff but I finally have a few months of freedom to be able to write and finish off a lot of the fanfics that I haven't finished. This one shouldn't go on past another chapter or two so it will be over fairly soon. The ending might seem a little rushed (because it is) because I didn't want to try to drag it out and rewrite most of what happened in the show. But I hope you like what I'm doing with it anyway.**

Skye opened her eyes, having closed them when Gordon surrounded her with bright blue light. She first saw Kate, who was grinning widely with a woman that seemed strangely familiar to Skye. She had the same eyes that Skye had been seeing for years, having seen them in her reflection. The woman took a few steps forward, a look of disbelief radiating across her face.

"Daisy?" She whispered, hesitating to reach a hand out to touch Skye's face.

Skye nodded, remembering the name Cal had told her back in San Juan. She wrapped her arms tightly around the woman, never wanting to let her go. This is how she wanted to be reunited with her parents, with a tender smile, not by following a trail of corpses. She wanted to hold on to the moment forever, but she had to release the woman in front of her, there were a lot of questions she wanted to ask.

"Oh, my Daisy, you're so beautiful and strong." She smiled, having spent a few moments looking at her daughter. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't find you."

"That doesn't matter." Skye shook her head, being unable to stop herself from smiling. "I have so many questions, and so much to tell you." She grinned, unable to hold back her excitement.

"I'd love to hear all about it." She smiled, gesturing for Skye to follow her to one of the small houses.

…

Skye felt like she was in a dream, as she told her mother all about SHIELD and her life before, and as she heard all about her mother and the life she would have had. She also spoke of her time in the Kree temple and her friend's reactions to her newfound abilities. She couldn't shake the feeling that she'd said too much as her mother's tender look darkened slightly, though only for a moment.

"I think you could help me Skye, a friend of yours came here just before Kate, I'm sure she'd love your help." Jiaying smiled, changing the topic from SHIELD. "Perhaps you'd come with me now." She smiled, before leading Skye out of her home and out to a boarded off house at the furthermost edge of the village. Inside was a dark room, sparsely furnished. Sat on the floor, appearing to be meditating was a figure covered in thick tines. "I'll leave you to speak with her." Jiaying smiled before leaving Skye in the dark room with the figure.

"I'd always believed that I was destined for something greater." The figure spoke after a few moments of silence. "I hurt a lot of people trying to unlock my gift, and this is what I became." They sounded eerily familiar to Skye. "Of course you'd be the one to stay beautiful, but I won't be here much longer to need to stay pretty."

"Raina?" Skye asked, taking a few steps closer to the woman. "If I'd seen you a few weeks ago I would probably have been very angry." Skye commented, moving to sit with the woman. "But I'm not angry about my powers anymore."

"I'm glad you like them." Raina smiled, keeping her eyes firmly shut. "I'm quite fond of mine, despite my outward appearance."

"What can you do?" Skye asked, curious as to what Raina had received.

"I can see things that haven't happened yet." Raina smiled, before opening her eyes to reveal the eerie yellow catlike eyes that hid behind her eyelids. "And I have a lot to warn you about, before my time is up."

Skye narrowed her eyes, unsure of whether to trust Raina.

"You may not believe me, you won't want to when you hear what I have to say, but you'll believe, in time." Raina spoke cryptically, moving to retrieve a notebook containing many drawings and rushed paragraphs. "This is everything I have seen since I left that temple. Most of it is unimportant, but I need you to remember what I'm about to say."

Skye nodded, taking the notebook from Raina.

"You cannot trust your mother, what she is planning will kill a lot of the people that you love." Raina began, ignoring Skye's protests. "You cannot let her find SHIELD, I'm not sure how but if you don't stop her a lot of good people will die. And you cannot let her reach a ship. I'm not too sure about that one, but I know that it will end badly."

"I'm just supposed to trust your word?" Skye asked, laughing slightly. "I have no reason to believe you."

"This is my destiny Skye." Raina explained, her voice level. "The thorns that protect the rose. Or in this case the daisy. We all have a purpose, our powers are given to us to create balance in the world. I didn't receive mine on the roll of a dice, and neither did you. We all have a purpose and mine is to help you."

Skye was still skeptical of Raina's claims, but she kept the notebook and stood, heading toward the door.

"You'll believe." Raina called after Skye stopping her in her tracks. "When your mother cuts my throat, that's when you'll believe."

Skye simply shook her head and left Raina alone in the dark.

…

"I believe her." Kate shook her head, ignoring Skye's scoffs. "I don't have the same past with her that you do, but I know that she was in a bad place when I got here. It was when I got here, when I began talking with her that she realized the amazing gift that she was given."

"She has done too much to hurt me and the people that I love for me to just blindly believe her." Skye protested, still clutching Raina's notebook. "She has no reason to even tell me anything because she doesn't care about anything."

"Then ask her." Kate suggested, sat watching Skye pace across the room. "Just talk to her again and maybe you'll understand."

Skye nodded to herself several times before rushing out of the room, leaving Kate behind once again to stare out of the window. Skye rushed through the village, struggling to find Raina, who wasn't in her room. After asking Gordon, Skye was informed that Raina was speaking with Jiaying in her office. Skye hesitated, unsure if she should go, Raina's final words echoing in her mind, but she pushed the words aside and continued to find her mother and Raina.

"SHIELD needs to be destroyed, you once believed that." Skye heard her mother speak, stopping just outside the door.

"I did." Raina replied. "And now I know that you cannot succeed. I've seen many futures, and the only ones I want to see are where SHIELD still stand."

Skye moved closer to the door, keeping out of sight as she watched the exchange.

"I am not the only person who will die to stop you." Raina informed Jiaying, taking a few steps closer to the desk at a slow measured pace as she continued speaking. "She arrived here only recently."

"No." Jiaying scoffed, taking a step back.

"You will be the cause of her destruction and in those flames, you will burn too." Raina growled, staring down Jiaying who looked to be at the point of breaking. She turned to walk away but Jiaying stopped her, tugging her close, holding a knife to her throat.

"I won't kill Skye, but I will kill you." Jiaying spoke coolly, cutting deeply through Raina's neck before letting the small woman fall to the ground, soaking the carpet in a deep red. Skye's eyes grew wide. Raina had warned her, had promised her that Jiaying would kill her and that Skye would believe, and it was true, everything Raina had said was true. Skye backed away from the door and ran back to the small room she had left Kate in, unsure of how to act next.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, dialing the number for the phone Tony had been amazed Loki knew how to use. She held the device to her ear, eager to hear his voice.

"Lady Skye." He answered his phone, his voice immediately soothing Skye. "How has your trip been so far?" He asked, his smile evident to Skye despite the fact she couldn't see him.

"It's been interesting." Skye began telling Loki about her mother and Raina, detailing her conversations with the two before telling him about the murder she had witnessed. "What do I do?" She asked, almost begging.

"Find out what she's planning and let us know what we can do to stop her." Loki spoke, the first time she'd ever heard him speak with such force. "We need to know what she's planning, so get that first. Try not to get caught and stall her if you can." He took a deep breath. "Good luck Skye."

"Thanks." She smiled before hanging up, remembering the notebook in her hand. She flicked through the pages, finding pieces of Jiaying's plan in the pages. From what Skye could understand, SHIELD would be on a boat, maybe an aircraft carrier, and she had to find out where. She also knew that it had something to do with crystals like the ones that changed her and Kate and that her mother will advance on her with a gun.

She sent Loki pictures of the pages she thought were important, leaving out the one where she was being threatened by her mother. Maybe this was what Raina was talking about, for them to win she had to die. She had to be killed by her mother. Before Skye could think about it any more she saw that most of the inhabitants of Afterlife were gathering on the outskirts of the village, gathering around Jiaying who was yelling over the crowd.

"We will destroy SHIELD. Those who belong with us will become inhuman and the rest will die." Skye heard her yell. "We have already allowed some of their people our gifts and now we will draw out the rest of our kin and destroy those who would see us bleed and die."

Skye rushed forward, suddenly at the front of the group with ther mother smiling at her. "Daisy, join us." She beckoned, a hand extended to her daughter. "Help me protect our people, we could do great things together, we could live in peace."

Skye felt disgusted by her mother's words, when her mother killed Raina she had the same look on her face, a power hungry smile that made Skye want to recoil. "No." She spoke, taking a step closer to her mother. "They may not have handled my change well, but they know that I'm still the same, they've apologized and they've changed too. SHIELD isn't a threat."

"Yes, it is." Jiaying nodded to one of the Inhumans in the group and he stepped forward, grabbing Skye by the arm and dragging her to a nearby building, throwing her inside and locking the door. Kate rushed over, trying to pull the door open but she was quickly apprehended and thrown in with Skye. The man who had grabbed them raised his arm and a glowing blue light surrounded the walls, stopping them from being able to escape.

Skye felt helpless, watching as dozens of Inhumans were transported from the village, all following Jiaying in her attempt to destroy SHIELD, of course Skye couldn't do anything to stop them, Raina had already tried and been killed for it. Kate was desperately trying to break them out of the room but it appeared that Jiaying's thugs had done a very good job of barring all of their escape routes, using an energy shield to hold them back.

"Down!" Kate yelled ecstatically, beginning to move the furniture from the middle of one of the small rooms. "We can go down and tunnel our way out. Between your earthquakes and my elements we should get out pretty easily." Kate took several deep breaths, focusing her energy on the empty space she had created on the floor. With a large rush of energy, a large portion of the floor and the dirt underneath it blew out, filling the air with a thin layer of dust.

Skye couldn't help but grin and began helping, making the hole bigger and the earth underneath it easier to separate. They continued their work, not making their hole too deep, they only needed to get a few feet under the walls. When they managed to break out, they saw that the village was empty and the sky was turning a dusty red, the sun as setting.

"I need you to save them." Gordon suddenly appeared in front of the pair. "Jiaying will get everyone killed if she has her wish. "Stop her and save them."

"Why have you suddenly changed sides?" Kate demanded of Gordon, preparing some of her energy in case she needed to fight him off.

"Because she has been killing our people for years." Gordon spoke hollowly. "Raina wasn't the first, but she will be the last. Anyone who poses a threat to Jiaying's control is killed, though not by their throats being cut. She can drain the life from a person, that's how she stays young and healthy. She steals the life force from Inhumans." Gordon offered a hand to the pair, his voice suddenly sincere. "Trust me, I'll take you to her."

Skye didn't hesitate to take his hand, but Kate did, her eyes calculating. "When you've taken us to her, go to the Avengers and tell them were we are. We'll need all of the help we can get."


End file.
